Parliament probes alleged PAC sponsorship request from rlg

Parliament has started investigating claims by the Editor-in-Chief of New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Kweku Baako Jr. that he has proof that the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament has written to local ICT giant, rlg, seeking sponsorship for some of its operations.

Kweku Baako made the claim when he spoke on private radio station, Joy FM on Saturday June 22, 2013 during the station’s news analysis programme ‘news file’.

He used the claim to diffuse allegations that rlg’s offer to sink boreholes in all 275 constituencies free-of-charge, at the behest and choosing of each of the Legislators, was a subtle means of bribing the Members of Parliament.

The borehole offer was met with suspicion and cynicism by some opposition Members of Parliament including K. T. Hammond who described it as “immoral”.

Other opposition MPs expressed reservations about the timing of the offer, but say they will nonetheless avail themselves of it.

Some of the legislators, however, out rightly rejected the offer on suspicion that it was meant to bribe them.

The Minority Caucus, as a matter of fact, directed all its members to reject the offer.

They wondered why the offer was being made at a time that a Select Committee of Parliament was investigating certain allegations of corruption against the AGAAMS Group, the umbrella parent company of rlg and other companies.

Asongtaba Cottage Industry, one of the companies under the AGAAMS group is under investigations in connection with a Ghc15m Guinea fowl project under a poverty alleviation module of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority programme.

SADA seeks to bridge the gap between the poor North and rich South.

Far less than 1000 birds were produced under the project despite the huge investment made by the State, thus necessitating a Parliamentary probe.

Also, a supposed afforestation project under the same SADA programme being championed by Asongtaba has been described as a flop by critics of the AGAAMS Group, owned by Roland Agambire.

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

The issue has been a major media topic for a while.

The suspicious MPs were of the opinion that the offer is to influence them to adopt a soft attitude toward rlg and the AGAAMS Group in general.

However, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Water Resources, Works and Housing, David Assumeng recently clarified that the offer was made by rlg a long time ago before the guinea fowl saga emerged.

Kweku Baako also dismissed the suspicions and defended the offer.

He said the clear distinction between the time the offer was made and the emergence of the guinea fowl saga, rendered the suspicions untenable.

According to him, he has documents to prove that the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament has written to rlg seeking sponsorship for some of its activities and, therefore, wondered why so much fuss was being made about the borehole offer by the same corporate firm to the legislators