Agyapa deal is a closed chapter, parliament cannot go back because Akufo-Addo says so – Assibey-Yeboah

Despite President Akufo-Addo issuing an order to the Finance Minister to resubmit the Agyapa deal to parliament for review and rectification, Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah says it will only take a fresh application for such an exercise to be conducted and not just an instruction from the Presidency.

Following the release of a corruption risk assessment report by the Office of the Special Prosecutor on the Agyapa deal in which it was described as being susceptible to “nepotism, cronyism and favouritism,” the President in a statement said he “has accordingly instructed the minister in the interest of transparency and accountability to the Ghanaian people, the agreement supporting the transaction submitted to parliament and approved by the house should be resubmitted to parliament for the approval process to start all over again.”

However, speaking in an interview with JoyNews monitored by GhanaWeb, Mr. Assibey-Yeboah stated that the workings of parliament go contrary to the instructions of the president contained in the statement.

“Parliament doesn’t work that way. When Parliament pronounces on the matter, when a motion is carried, a resolution thereof, that is the end of the matter. If a fresh application comes, then parliament will consider it. To all intent and purposes, the Agyapa deal is a closed chapter. If the presidency or the ministry or government for that matter intends to bring a fresh matter, an improvement, or whatever, then parliament will consider. Parliament cannot go back and say that we are going to go back and reconsider this because the president says so.”

According to Mr. Assibey-Yeboah who is the Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, the only way parliament can go back and take a look at the Agyapa Gold Royalties Management deal will be if the Minister of Finance is bringing a new dimension to the agreement.

On the work and pronouncements made by the Special Prosecutor on the agreement passed by parliament, Dr. Assibey-Yeboah described it as the slopiest job Mr Martin Amidu has ever done and added that Mr. Amidu lacked understanding on the Agyapa transaction.

“In the minimum, he should have even spoken to the Chairman of the Committee to get a feel of how we went about all of these. Martin Amidu who professes that he does a good job and he puts out this sloppy report did not speak to me, the Chairman of the Committee…Martin Amidu doesn’t understand the transaction and I don’t blame him,” he said.