Minority challenges government to produce MOU on $19b Chinese loan

The Minority caucus in Parliament has challenged Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the New Patriotic Party to make available to Parliament details of the $19 billion MOU between Ghana and China.

According to them, the recent Supreme Court ruling on the two Guantanamo Bay inmates makes it imperative for the government to bring the $19 billion MOU with the Chinese government to Parliament for approval.

Article 75(2a&b) states a treaty, agreement or convention executed by or under the authority of the President shall be subject to ratification of (a) Act of Parliament (b) A resolution of Parliament supported by a vote of more than a half of Members Parliament.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, was addressing a Press Conference at Parliament to share the Minority’s position on a number of significant national issues of paramount importance.

Some of the issues raised at the Press Conference included $2.25 billion bond, the Energy Sector and recent government $19 billion MOU agreement with the Chinese.

Mr. Iddrisu also stated that the explanation by Dr. Bawumia to the effect that $19 billion MOU between Ghana and the Chinese was a partnership and not a loan was incorrect since the nation would have to guarantee the facility with its bauxite resources.

He said the best way for the government to demonstrate transparency and good government was to make available details of the MOU to Parliament for scrutiny.

Mr. Iddrisu also announced that the Minority had resolved to continue to pursue its petition on the $2.25 billion bond at the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States of America with renewed vigour.

He said investigations by the Minority revealed that though the parent company Franklin Templeton was registered in the United States of America, it appeared it used a subsidiary company registered in Luxembourg to purchase 95 percent of the bond.

He said to satisfy additional jurisdictional issues, based on this revelation, a group of Minority MPs comprising Dr. Dominic Ayine, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and Isaac Adongo have filed a whistle-blower complaint with the regulator in Luxembourg known as the Commission de Surveillance de Secteur Financier (CSSF) which begun looking into the matter.

Mr. Iddrisu also assured the nation that the Minority will continue to cooperate with ongoing international investigations to the best of their abilities and with good intentions in the supreme interest of Ghana.

He said the group would lend its support to the petition before the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice(CHRAJ) and the writ filed at the Human Rights Court seeking to compel the Finance Minister to provide all the information covering this transaction.

Mr. Iddrisu further described as bizarre and shameful a press conference by Mr Boakye Agyarko, Minister of Energy on July 4, 2017 claiming that even before the Ministerial Committee would get to work, the BNI and National Security had exonerated Mr Alfred Obeng Boateng, the BOST Managing Director and absolved him of all wrongdoing.

He said the naked cover-up in the BOST saga is an insult to Ghanaians and an affront to the laws of Ghana.

He said the signs are now clear that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government had no commitment to fighting corruption.

“What we have been treated to in this embarrassing spectacle is a new government that had arrived to dash the hopes of many Ghanaians by entrenching the canker of corruption” he said.

[