MPs reject RLG’s daylight bribery

Highly-favoured ICT and electronics assembling company, RLG has proposed to the leadership of parliament, it wants to build boreholes in each of the 275 constituencies in the country, in what is seen as an attempt to compromise the lawmakers.

In a letter copied to all 275 Members of Parliament (MPs), the company said, it had a “Water For All Initiative” as part of its corporate social responsibility.

A fully installed borehole is priced between GH¢6,500 to GH¢8,000.

The offer to MPs comes days after the same company donated a large number of laptop computers and huge cash to Gina Blay-led Private Newspaper Publishers Association (PRINPAG).

RLG was the company which supplied government’s laptop computers to school pupils and university students across the country.

RLG owner, Roland Agambre, is also behind Asongtaba Cottage Industry, which was reported to have benefitted over ¢150 billion under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authourity (SADA) initiative, to go into Guinea Fowl production, in the three Northern Regions. The poultry project is yet to make a meaningful impart in the lives of the people.

Mr. Agambre is also reported to have gotten billions of cash again, but this time in an afforestation project, under the same SADA programme, whiles the Forestry Commission sits idle. Most of the trees are said to have died as they were planted in the dry season.

RLG, is said to have had its breakthrough under the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, particularly from the then Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs, Kwadwo Mpiani.

Ex-President John Kufuor’s most trusted man, is said to have doled out a whopping GH¢5 million to that company. The circumstance under which that money, said to have come from Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOG), was retrieved from Mr. Agambre by a state institution is another interesting story.

The RLG and Asongtaba Cottage Industry, is a financial pot from which some notable journalists, social commentators and prominent politicians, from both the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and NPP eat.

According to Joy FM, the initiative which is under the auspices of the RLG Ghana Foundation intends “sponsoring the drilling of a borehole each in all the 275 Constituencies in Ghana”.

The letter described RLG Ghana Foundation as “a private foundation dedicated to the promotion and implementation of social development initiatives.”

It asked interested MPs to indicate on an attached form “the most appropriate town/community the borehole should be sited”.

The letter is dated June 10, 2013. Meanwhile, MP for Effutu in the Central region, Alex Afenyo Markin, has told Joy News, he was opposed to RLG’s offer to build boreholes in their Constituencies for free.

In a letter addressed to the Clerk of Parliament, the ICT and electronics company proposed to construct boreholes in each of the 275 constituencies in Ghana. The letter was signed by the Executive Director of the company, Prosper Harrison Addo and dated June 10, 2013.

A memo from the Clerk of Parliament, Emmanuel Ayimadu, further directed MPs interested in the project to fill a form indicating the town they want the borehole located.

But Mr Afenyo Markin is urging his colleagues to reject the offer.

Speaking to Joy News, Mr Markin said, he was “totally” against the offer.

“I think it’s a strategy to compromise MPs and I, therefore, would not subscribe to that so called borehole drilling by RLG Foundation”, he stated.

According to the Efutu MP, the offer is an attempt by RLG to hoodwink the Parliamentarians.

Joy News investigations revealed that the company has breached its contract with Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) to train some youths in ICT and mobile phone repairs.

Emphasising his disagreement over the offer, Mr Markin maintained that “I need boreholes in Winneba, but I would look for funding”. Another NPP MP, K. T. Hammond described the offer by RLG Communications as “immoral”.

Sharing his thoughts on the matter on CitiFM’s Eyewitness News on Wednesday, Mr. Hammond who is the MP for Adansi Asokwa in the Ashanti Region, questioned the motive behind the company’s offer.

He said, “The concept, its implementation, it everything is immoral and I hate it…I’m beginning to think that this whole thing is associated by malice and the malice is in the form of trying to compromise MPs.”

He said, “We all know what is going on. Everybody is aware of what has taken place in this country with respect to some disbursement of hard earned national resources. What is this company attempting to do; to compromise MPs or what?”

According to him, the offer was possibly to keep “MPs quiet by making sure that they have one bore-hole each in the constituencies” because the House debated and discussed the disbursement and alleged misuse of state funds by the mother company of RLG, Agams Group of Companies.

Mr. Hammond stressed, that Parliament would reject the offer saying, “we don’t need it. We will say, thank you very much, let’s talk about the guinea fowl money, let’s talk about the monies that have come up in Parliament and we are debating.”

RLG and PRINPAG recently agreed to partner each other towards the strengthening of the journalistic practice in Ghana, especially among the private press.

The two institutions have consequently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a wide range of areas, including capacity building and an outreach to private newspaper outlets across the country.

A joint statement issued in Accra said, RLG had agreed to generously provide funding for a number of interventions contained in the 2013 working document and plan of the umbrella body of private newspaper publishers, PRINPAG.

PRINPAG has lined up a number of activities, including seminars for reporters, editors and newspaper owners, as well as an encounter with other professional bodies, whose work impacts on the media, such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG), Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG), National Media Commission (NMC), and the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), to brainstorm on best practices, as well as ethics and regulations.

The collaboration would also facilitate PRINPAG’s participation in two international events; 2nd Turkey-Africa Media Forum in the Turkish capital, Ankara, last month, and the 65th Congress of the World Association of Newspapers in Bangkok, Thailand, in June.