Motion to probe Ford gift waste of taxpayers' money – Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama speaks on Good Evening Ghana

President John Mahama has described as “frivolous waste of taxpayers money” a failed motion by the minority to have a bipartisan committee set up to investigate an issue relating to a Burkinabe allegedly bribing the President.

He maintains he did nothing wrong by receiving the Ford Expedition 'gift' from the Burkinabe contractor but was “sad” to see the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament (MPs) engaged in “petty politicking” to taint him.
The NPP MPs, he says defeated their cause when they put out conflicting reasons for the motion.

President Mahama made these remarks during an interview on an Accra-based TV station, Metro TV Tuesday.

A motion for Parliament to set up a parallel committee to investigate an issue in which the President received a Ford Expedition vehicle from a Burkinabe contractor was shot down by the Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho.

The issue came to public attention following Joy News’ Manasseh Awuni Azure’s investigation in which President Mahama received the $100,000 vehicle from the Burkinabe Djibril Oumarou Kanazoe.

The contractor who is a friend of the President went on to receive three government contracts but he rejected the last one after the story broke out. He constructed the $650,000 Ghana Embassy wall in Burkina Faso and the Dodo-Pepeso section of the Eastern Corridor Road Project.

Anti-graft campaigners slammed the President accusing him of conflict of interest. This triggered three petitions which were sent to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

Citing reasons for the rejection of the motion, Mr Adjaho says Parliament cannot undertake a parallel investigation in a matter before CHRAJ. He believes upholding the motion would amount to a duplication of responsibilities hence his decision to reject it.

He directed the Clerk of Parliament to return the motion to the Minority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu who authored the motion.

Even though the NPP MPs described the Speakers decision as unfortunate they failed to indicate their next line of action.

Reacting to the issue, Mr Mahama said what the minority did was a waste of the country’s resources.

An emergency summons such as this was is necessitated by the motion requires transportation allowance to be given to the MPs among other incentives which cost the taxpayer, he says adding the action was uncalled for.

“If it was a motion to impeach me then that would have been a totally different matter but I am not angry I am sad,” he said.