“Cash for Seat” Committee suspends sitting

The Ameyaw Cheremeh Committee, probing the allegation of illegal levies and collection of monies by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, on Tuesday suspended sitting because witnesses invited for the day did not show up.

The Committee of Inquiry, dubbed; the “Cash for Seat” Probe, had invited 23 expatriate businesses that sponsored the GEBA Awards last December, but none of them was present to testify when the Committee sat at 1000 hours, at the Parliament House, in Accra.  

The Chairman of the five-member bi-partisan Committee and Member of Parliament for Sunyani East, Mr Kwasi Ameyaw Cheremeh, said the Committee gave the witnesses 1000 hours.

“We have written to them, we gave them 1000 hours to appear before us, unfortunately we have waited up till now, it is 1110 hours, none has shown up. So we are unable to continue the work of the Committee for the day.

“We will adjourn and probably re-contact them to appear before us at a later date. We will give them that opportunity to appear before us,” he said.

Spokesperson for the Committee and MP for Adentan, Mr Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, told journalists that the absence of the witnesses was not officially communicated to the Committee.

Though no reason had been assigned for their absence, he said an option of an in-camera hearing “has never been closed”.

He said, however, that option must be justified on merit, adding that the absence of the expatriate business leaders affected the pace at which the Committee gathered the evidence, which “puts pressure” on the committee to complete its work.

He said sittings would continue as soon as discussions were concluded with the invited expatriates and a date would be fixed for the meeting.

“As soon as we have a road-map, as soon as we have fixed a date convenient to the Committee and to them, we will inform you.

“…We have given them sufficient information, we will go back and sort it out and we will meet them,” Mr Buabeng Asamoah said.

The Committee was set up on January 5, after an emergency recall of Parliament.

This followed a motion by Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, for parliamentary probe into alleged levies and collection of monies by the Ministry of Trade in connection with the organisation of the 2017 GEBA.

The Ministry was accused of collecting monies and levies to allow participants sit close to the “President” at that event.

The Committee, which began work on Thursday, January 11, 2018, has up to  Tuesday, January 24, to submit its report, but Mr Asamoah said the time schedule was tight.

“So obviously if we hit a roadblock I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an extension,” he said, adding that there was a lot of work to be done to gather evidence to prepare a report for Parliament.

Source: GNA