President Kufuor's claim that he was not part of the failed attempt to give each Member of Parliament (MP) $20,000 car loan has been debunked by Hon. Agyare Koi Larbi, the maverick NPP member for Akropong.
In an interview after last Friday's Odwira Grand Durbar organised at Akropong, Koi Larbi also justified the public outcry over the deal, citing the current precarious economic conditions as making such a dole-out unacceptable.
"We have to presume that whatever the Minister of Finance does, he does it with the consent and concurrence of the President and the entire Cabinet. And so it is with the man in charge of Government Business," the Akropong MP argued.
He stressed that once the Majority Leader was involved in the transaction, nobody can disown any responsibility. "I think the Executive and everybody was aware".
Though an MP himself, Koi Larbi said he was personally against the idea of the government directly giving out the $20,000 or any amount for that matter, to the MPs as the car loans. What can be done, rather, is to ask the MPs to take loans from the banks whiles Parliament guarantees the payment.
"This way, it will become a simple commercial transaction and the risks involved will be taken by the MPs and not Parliament per se". In the event that a particular borrower is unable to pay before he leaves office, then his end-of-service benefits could be used to defray the remaining loan.
Asked to tell the upper ceiling of the amount which would be realistic, he answered that the "reasonability of the amount will depend on the salaries of the MPs and what their ESBs are likely to be".
President Kufuor's claim that he was not part of the failed attempt to give each Member of Parliament (MP) $20,000 car loan has been debunked by Hon. Agyare Koi Larbi, the maverick NPP member for Akropong.
In an interview after last Friday's Odwira Grand Durbar organised at Akropong, Koi Larbi also justified the public outcry over the deal, citing the current precarious economic conditions as making such a dole-out unacceptable.
"We have to presume that whatever the Minister of Finance does, he does it with the consent and concurrence of the President and the entire Cabinet. And so it is with the man in charge of Government Business," the Akropong MP argued.
He stressed that once the Majority Leader was involved in the transaction, nobody can disown any responsibility. "I think the Executive and everybody was aware".
Though an MP himself, Koi Larbi said he was personally against the idea of the government directly giving out the $20,000 or any amount for that matter, to the MPs as the car loans. What can be done, rather, is to ask the MPs to take loans from the banks whiles Parliament guarantees the payment.
"This way, it will become a simple commercial transaction and the risks involved will be taken by the MPs and not Parliament per se". In the event that a particular borrower is unable to pay before he leaves office, then his end-of-service benefits could be used to defray the remaining loan.
Asked to tell the upper ceiling of the amount which would be realistic, he answered that the "reasonability of the amount will depend on the salaries of the MPs and what their ESBs are likely to be".
