Agyapa Royalties deal: My corruption risk assessment not a showpiece for trivialities – Amidu

The Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu has warned against trivializing his office’s corruption risk assessment report on the controversial Agyapa Royalties Agreement.

In a statement dated Tuesday 3 November 2020, Amidu expressed frustration with attempts by various actors in the deal to trivialize the 64-page corruption risk assessment report.

“I do not intend to be patronized as the Special Prosecutor as Mr. Eugene Arhin appears to have conveyed by the statement issued under his hand. Analysis of the risk of corruption and anti-corruption assessments are a serious anti-corruption tool with very serious consequences for any country dedicated to fighting corruption and making corruption a high-risk enterprise,” Amidu said.

“The sixty-four (64) page report was analyzed and assessed professionally and referenced with detailed analysis of the risk of corruption and anti-corruption assessment of the Agyapa Royalties Transactions from which no one can just pick and choose what he wants. The documents and the facts are real and were not manufactured by the Special Prosecutor.

“The Office of the Special Prosecutor was either seriously intended to prevent and fight corruption or was only intended as a showpiece to be trivialized. The sixty-four (64) page report must be taken seriously to make corruption a very high-risk venture in Ghana,” he added.

Amidu’s statement comes on the back of the Finance Minister’s rejections of his findings. According to Ken Ofori-Atta before initiating the transaction, MoF ensured to undertake all the necessary pre-requisite action required by law, from the procurement of transaction advisors to the submission of transaction documents to the AG and Parliament for their review, input, and approval.”

That notwithstanding, President Akufo-Addo ordered him to resubmit the deal to parliament to be reassessed. According to the President, “in the interest of transparency and accountability to the Ghanaian people, the Agreements supporting the transaction that were submitted to Parliament, and approved by the House, should be resubmitted to Parliament for the approval process to start all over again.”

But the Minority in Parliament has said the lawmaking chamber cannot remedy the defects associated with the controversial Agyapa deal.

Addressing journalists on the development on Tuesday 3 November 2020, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu said that with the referral from the executive and the president, parliament cannot remedy the defects as captured in the conclusions of the Special Prosecutor.

He wondered: “How is parliament going to remedy breaches to the Public Financial Management Act? How is parliament going to remedy breaches to the Public Procurement Act and its accompanying amendments? How is parliament going to remedy payments made to IMRA, which has a decoy company of Databank, how is parliament going to remedy that?”

“So, I do not see the NDC Minority ever supporting anything Agyapa. I want to be convinced that it’s worth building a national consensus on and that will be premised on three important issues”, Iddrisu said.