I never took NLA 'bribe' - Akoto Osei

A former Ranking Member on the Finance Committee in parliament, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, has said although he was part of the committee that deliberated on the National Lottery Act, 2006 (Act 722) at the Royal Senchi Hotel last year, he was not paid any per diem or allowance.

He said he was also not aware that the workshop was funded by the National Lottery Authority (NLA).

It has emerged that the Committee that did the deliberations was funded by the NLA.

A former Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, had admitted his committee received money from officials of the NLA before deliberating on the amendment of the Lottery Act.

Mr Avedzi is reported to have said that the NLA first presented 50,000 cedis to the committee "but when we looked at the provisions, we realised that the amount was not sufficient so they promised to bring another 50,000 cedis".

But reacting to this development in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM on Thursday June 29, Dr Akoto Osei, who is currently Minister of Monitoring & Evaluation, said: “Sometime last year the Lottery Bill was brought to parliament and so we went to Royal Senchi Hotel to deliberate on it.

“But I had other equally important programmes to attend and so I did not sit throughout the number of days used in the deliberations, but I never heard any issue of the NLA sponsoring that particular deliberations. I am hearing about this for the first time today.

“The then chairman has not spoken to me about the sponsorships, even as we speak today he hasn’t spoken to me about it so I am not aware.”