Former Member of Parliament for Sege, Alfred Abayateye has expressed suspicions that local IT giant, rlg, leaked to the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, a letter written by the Public Accounts Committee Chairman seeking sponsorship for the PAC.
Mr. Abayateye, who was a member of the PAC, wondered how the letter, specifically addressed to the CEO of rlg, Roland Agambire, got to Kweku Baako Jr who brandished it on TV when he appeared on Joy FM’s news analysis programme of June 22, 2013.
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 a free borehole offer made to the Legislators by the same corporate firm.
Kweku Baako used the claim to diffuse allegations that rlg’s offer to sink 275 boreholes in all the country’s 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”.
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.
Mr. Alfred Abayateye told XYZ News on Thursday June 27 that the letter was a very innocuous one which merely sought sponsorship from the company to assist some members of the Committee to attend a conference organised in The Gambia.
The Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho on Thursday announced a probe into the sponsorship letter.
