Parliamentarians rent out duty houses?

Some parliamentarians have allegedly rented out their duty houses at very exorbitant rates to individuals or temporarily allocated them out for businesses and other commercial ventures.

The state-owned ?Ghanaian Times? newspaper said it?s investigations has revealed that an Ivorian and twelve Ghanaians who are not parliamentarians currently occupy some of the estate houses allocated to the parliamentarians as constituency houses at Manet Ville at East Airport.

The estate houses with a property value of 75million cedis were acquired for the parliamentarians by parliament. The newspaper quoting what it called a ?usually reliable source? at parliament said the house cannot be transferred or rented out under any circumstances and said unconfirmed reports put the charges for the house between six and seven million cedis for periods of two years or less.

According to the newspaper, some of the occupants said parliamentarians because of their special ?connections? transferred the houses to them while others claimed they were related to some parliamentarians even though they will not name them.

One parliamentarian the newspaper spoke to, Hon. Nana Akomea (NPP MP for Okaikwei South), said a friend is just staying in his for a while. The paper said Hon. John Gyasi MP for Adansi Asokwa in whose house the Ivorian resides and the Marshal of Parliament, Colonel Lamptey (rtd) refused to comment on the allegations.