Media Foundation for West Africa condemns MPs for demanding T&T from event organisers (April 17, 2015) Front
The Executive Director of the Media
Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Mr Sulemana Braimah, has condemned the
practice whereby some Members of Parliament (MPs) demand travel and
transportation (T&T) allowance before honouring invitations to events.
“I don’t think it is right for
public officials to be given transport when they go for public interest
events,” he told the Daily Graphic in a telephone conversation.
He said just as it was
inappropriate for Ghanaian journalists to demand ‘soli’ (money given to
journalists to cover their transport after they provide coverage for an event),
it was not right for MPs to receive T&T for doing public service.
“Journalists take soli for transport
because their transportation cost is not covered by their organisations and
this is considered wrong. For MPs, it is important that when they are involved
in public-interest events about what people think, what people feel to inform
what decisions they make, in terms of policy, it is wrong for them to receive
transport after public-interest events,” Mr Braimah said.
He, however, declined to share
experiences of the MFWA with respect to MPs that demand such payments.
Several follow-up calls to Mr
Braimah‘s mobile phone for him to expatiate on his statement, however, went
unanswered.
Not
new
Allegations of some MPs being paid
to carry out public interest activities in Parliament is not a new subject.
In March last year, the Majority
Leader, Mr Alban S.K. Bagbin, stirred a pot of controversy when he alleged
that some MPs take bribes to articulate the views of some individuals and
organisations on the floor of Parliament.
The Nadowli/Kaleo MP said: “The
reality is that MPs are Ghanaians and there is evidence that some MPs take
bribes and come to the floor and try to articulate the views of their sponsors.
“This is because in Ghana we have
not developed what we call lobbying. There are rules; there are ethics
regarding lobbying and we in Ghana think that lobbying is taking money, giving
it to MPs and writing pieces for them to go and articulate on the floor. That
is bribery,” he explained.
A month later, an aspirant in the
2008 New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential primaries, Dr Kobina Arthur
Kennedy, shared a similar view, saying “Ghanaians are being screwed
multiple times by our Parliament”.
“We pay them to guard the public
purse. The Executive pays them to approve corrupt deals—private companies pay
them to propagate bogus opinions and we are poorer for it,” he observed.
In 2008, Mr Collins Appiah-Ofori,
the controversial, plain-spoken and then the MP for the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa
constituency, alleged that members on the then Majority side, the New Patriotic
Party (NPP), had been paid $5,000 each by the government to push forward the
Vodafone deal.
Mr Appiah-Ofori was in Parliament on
the ticket of the NPP.
Reactions
In his reaction, the Minority Leader
in Parliament, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, denied the allegation, describing it
as a sweeping statement that had the tendency to paint all MPs in a bad light.
He said it was crucial for Mr
Braimah to come up with the names of the MPs that he had information on for
demanding money from event organisers.
“He should be candid to come out
with the list of the MPs who demand money. He has to come out better,” Mr
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu insisted.
He said since Parliament was
mandated to be accountable to the people, Mr Braimah should have been specific
in his accusations.
The Deputy Majority Leader, Mr
Alfred Agbesi, said Mr Braimah’s inability to mention the names of any MPs or
event organisers who claimed that MPs had demanded money before honouring their
programmes “makes the story unbelievable”.
He said, for instance, that
Parliament had an agreement with STAR-Ghana for training programmes for MPs.
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