Minority acted in national interest when they walked out on Agyapa – PPP

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has commended the Minority in Parliament for staging a walkout during the debate on the controversial Agyapa Royalties deal.

The opposition party said the action by the Minority was in the interest of the entire nation and for that reason the NDC must be commended for their resistance to the deal that has been described as stinky, corrupt and nepotistic.

Running mate for the party Kofi Asamoah-Siaw who addressed journalists on Thursday, November 5, 2020, said the deal was a plan executed to rip the nation off and as Ghanaians, we must be proud that the Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu did a great job in describing the deal as a fraud.

He stated that the directive from the SP for the suspension of the public offer and subsequent release of the report is also commendable.

He slammed the Finance Minister for showing no regrets in the role he played in getting this corrupt deal approved.

The president he advised must sack him if he fails to resign honourably.

Parliament in September approved the controversial Agyapa Mineral Royalty Limited agreement with the government of Ghana despite a walkout by the Minority.

Two years ago, parliament passed the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act 2018.

The act establishes the Minerals Income Investment Fund to manage the equity interests of Ghana in mining companies, and receive royalties on behalf of the government.

The fund was supposed to manage and invest these royalties and revenue from equities for higher returns for the benefit of the country.

The law allows the fund to establish Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to use for the appropriate investments.

The SP was later asked, to probe the matter in his report, he said the deal was fraught with nepotism, favouritism, and cronyism.

According to the Special Prosecutor, upon analyzing the transaction document, he uncovered that the arrangements lacked transparency.

“The analysis of the risk of corruption, and anti-corruption assessment in the bid selection process led to the assessment that the involvement of Imam Corporate Finance Limited (Pty) of South Africa in the Mandate Agreement as approved by the Public Procurement Authority made the Mandate Agreement an international business or economic transaction needing approval from Parliament under Article 181(5) which was never sought or given.”

“Secondly, the whole of the fees for the bid purportedly won by Imara of South Africa with its decoy. Databank of Ghana is to be paid in United States Dollars to Imams Corporate Finance Limited (Pty) of South Africa. The Mandate Agreement does not say how and when the decoy, Databank of Ghana, was to be paid by Imam for a contract purportedly won and performed jointly,” he explained.

He added that the Finance Ministry eluded the approval of the Public Procurement Authority stated in the Public Procurement Authority Act 2003 (Act 663) and amended by Act 2016 (Act 914) (Act 663 as amended).

In concluding he said: “the process of the selection of the Transaction Advisor(s) disclosed a reasonable suspicion of bid-rigging and corruption activity including the potential for illicit financial flows and money laundering in the arrangement of the fees payable to Databank of Ghana as the decoy.”