Group demands parliamentary probe into AKSA bribery allegations

A pressure group, The People’s Alliance for Governance and Accountability (PAGA) has called on Parliament to launch a full-scale investigation into bribery allegations surrounding the AKSA power agreement.

The pressure group said the demand follows evidence accepted in a criminal prosecution in the United States indicating that money was paid to some Ghanaian Members of Parliament in connection with the transaction.

A federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, convicted former TOR MD Asante Kwaku Berko on Thursday, August 6, over a scheme involving the payment of more than US$1 million in bribes to multiple Ghanaian officials in connection with the development and financing of a power plant in Ghana.

The conviction has generated renewed public interest in the case, particularly the Ghanaian officials allegedly implicated in the scheme.

The AKSA Emergency Power Agreement was reviewed, approved and ratified by Parliament in 2015 during the Third Session of the Sixth Parliament.

According to PAGA, 18 MPs served on the Mines and Energy Committee at the time the agreement was considered by Parliament.

The group said the allegations require Parliament to establish the identities of any MPs who may have received money in connection with the agreement.

“There is now evidence accepted in a United States criminal prosecution that money was paid to some Members of Ghana’s Parliament in connection with a transaction that Parliament was constitutionally required to scrutinize and approve,” PAGA said in a statement on Wednesday, August 12.

It said the investigation must be conducted without partisan considerations and urged Parliament’s leadership to establish an appropriate committee or mechanism to investigate the matter.

PAGA also called for all relevant individuals and institutions to be invited to assist with the inquiry.

The pressure group said Parliament must apply the same standards it uses when scrutinising allegations against other public officials to allegations involving its own members.

“Parliament must demonstrate that it can investigate allegations concerning its own members with the same seriousness with which it scrutinizes the conduct of other public officials,” it stated.

PAGA stressed that its demand was not intended to determine the guilt of any individual, saying such matters should be decided by the courts.

“We are asking for an investigation into the matter and further prosecution. We are asking for transparency. We are asking for accountability. Ghana deserves nothing less,” the group stressed.