Censure motion: Ken Ofori-Atta faces adhoc c’ttee tomorow

 The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, will tomorrow, Friday, put up his defence when he makes an appearance before the eight- member Adhoc Committee constituted by parlia­ment to probe grounds on which the minority wants him removed from office.

Mr Ofori-Atta is expected to appear with his Counsel, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, to respond to seven grounds for which the proponents of a censure motion, the minority leader and MP for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu, and Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, MP for Ejumako/Enyan/Essiam and Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, have cited for his removal.

The minority have been push­ing for the removal of the finance minister on grounds of conflict of interest, unconstitutional withdrawals from the Consolidat­ed Fund, illegal payment of oil revenues into offshore accounts and deliberate and dishonest misreporting of economic data to Parliament.

The rest are fiscal recklessness leading to the crash of the Gha­naian Cedi, incompetence and frightening ineptitude and gross mismanagement of the Ghanaian economy.

Represented by Mr Iddrisu and Dr Forson, the minority appeared before the Committee on Tuesday to make a presentation on what they considered credible reasons why Mr Ofori-Atta must be shown the exit.

Mr Ofori-Atta, who attended Tuesday’s sitting, through his counsel, asked for a fair hearing and asked that the proponents of the motion furnished him with documents that would be relied on to execute the motion.

Mr Otchere-Darko said the rules of natural justice and fair hearing required that the minister was furnished with the docu­ments that formed the bases of the allegations made against him.

Anything short of that, Mr Otchere-Darko said, would be tantamount to ambushing the minister with questions that may not fall within the domain of the probe.

The request was initially met with hesitance by the witnesses who said that the documents were public documents and could be accessed by anyone.

After minutes of argument and exchanges between both sides, the co-Chairmen, K.T. Hammond and Dr Dominic Ayine, ruled that the minority furnished the Committee and the respondent with documents.

 BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI

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