No special commission is needed to probe the M&J bribery
scandal, Attorney General guts out
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, Sept 28, Ghanadot -
Ghana’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs
Betty Mould Iddrisu discloses that the bribery scandal that
has hit some present and past government officials does not
warrant any special commission to investigate.
The nature of the issue is such that the
president does not need to launch any full scale public
inquiry into it, she added.
Reacting to calls to set up an independent commission of
inquiry just like the Ghana @50 commission of Inquiry, Mrs
Mould Iddrisu told Joy FM that “the Mabey & Johnson
allegation is different from Ghana@50 Inquiry.
A UK court Friday, last week named a number
of past and present government officials as having received
bribes from a UK construction firm, Mabey & Johnson during
its operations in Ghana in the '90s.
Some of the names mentioned include Kwame Peprah, a former
Minister of Finance during the J.J Rawlings regime, Alhaji
Boniface Abubakar Saddique, a former Minister of Water
Resources, Works and Housing and Dr. George Sipa Yankey, the
current Minister of Health.
Following the court’s ruling, president J.E.A. Mills has
directed the A-G to investigate the issues to inform
government’s next line of action.
However, a section of the public thinks the seriousness of
the allegations require a public inquiry, while some are
calling for the removal from the sitting Minister of Health.
Mrs Mould Iddrisu however disagrees, saying if the
investigation is left in the hands of a Commission of
Inquiry, “before you know it, the evidence has been
corrupted.”
She said her own investigation would be enough and called on
Ghanaians to have confidence in the A-G.
The A-G also stated that no time line has been given for her
to complete her investigations as “there can never be a time
frame for investigations.”
Ghanadot
