Speaker breaks silence

Rt. Hon. Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes The former Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, has finally broken his silence over a series of media reports alleging that he had packed away items belonging to the State when he was vacating his government bungalow earlier in the year.

According to him, it was never true that he bolted with any soft furnishing he was not entitled to, and stressed that all the wall hangings and various artifacts that used to decorate the walls of the sitting room and other apartments of the building were his personal items, some of which dated several years back.

The former Speaker, who was not in the country when the reports broke, said since the beginning of the Fourth Republic, all out-going Speakers retained all furnishings, both soft and hard, and he did not understand the mischief being played by people who found it politically expedient to do so.

“Records show that the present residence is not the first official residence of the Speaker of Parliament. Since 1993, Parliament has provided furnishing to residences of the Leadership. Such furnishing, soft and hard, has been retained by the leadership on leaving office,” he recalled.

According to him, the truthfulness or otherwise of the allegations leveled against him was verifiable from official records at the office of the Clerk of Parliament, who constitutionally, happens to be the Head of Parliamentary Service.

He recalled that in the past, even vehicles provided for Speakers were retained, and noted that if those items were to be returned, then it must be done to cover all former beneficiaries.

“If it is the view that any particular item must be paid for, the Parliamentary Service Board may so determine, consistent with the manner of disposal to earlier beneficiaries,” he stressed.

Rt. Hon. Sekyi Hughes said the Board had since April 18, 2007, proposed and later accepted a policy, streamlining the furnishings for the Speaker, Deputies, Majority Leader, Minority Leader, Whips, Clerks and other analogous positions.

He said at a subsequent Board meeting, the Clerk of Parliament, Kenneth Tachie, read a memo to the effect that his proposal had been approved.

He quoted part of the memo, which read: “The chairman and members will respectfully recall that at the 27th meeting of the Board, my proposal regarding the disposal and sale of soft furnishing to occupants of official residences at the end of their term of office was approved”.

It is recalled that the Majority Leader, Hon. Alban Bagbin, recently told the media that the former Speaker, soon after leaving office, literally stripped his official residence bare of all furnishings “and did not leave even a pin behind”.

Interestingly, the Parliamentary Service Board, which held all the meetings and approved the proposal, included the Majority Leader, Hon. Alban Bagbin.

Sources close to the former Speaker's family, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE recently, said the allegations were unfounded, and suggested they could be part of the machinations of former Speaker's political opponents.  

They explained that the Speaker had returned the generator to the official residence, and had also sent back to Parliament, two vehicles which were in his custody.

Newspaper publications following Bagbin's allegation, claimed that the ex-Speaker took away generators and other items, all valued at about $400,000 (over 4 billion old cedis).

Others claimed that he even took away anything he could lay his hands on, including cutlery, napkins, curtains, bed sheets, cooking pots, washing machines, flower pots and even soap dishes.

By Bennett Akuaku