MPs deny details of Chinery-Hesse Report

Page 3, Wed, Jan 21, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
ALTHOUGH some Members of Parliament (MPs) have denied knowledge of the adoption of the Chinery-Hesse Committee’s final report on emoluments for constitutional office holders, investigations have revealed that the report was adopted by the House just before the Fourth Parliament was dissolved on January 6, 2009.
The report was adopted during a closed-door session of the day’s sitting, during which many MPs from both sides of the then Parliament were present.
Some of the MPs who were present, however, argued that they had not been aware of that aspect of the report which spelt out the emoluments for ex-President J.A. Kufuor and other future ex-presidents..
The official report of Parliament (the Hansard) for January 6, 2009, however, did not capture the proceedings of the closed-door meeting of the House during which the issue had come up for discussions.
The only portion of the Hansard of January 6, 2009 that gave glimpses of reports that had been discussed captured the Speaker saying, “Honourable members …. We need to take about 30 minutes to go through these reports and we need to do so when the House is cleared. So let us have a closed-door sitting for 20 minutes, please, and we may then come back.”
But, like some members of the public who are shocked by the contents of the report, some MPs who were in the House when the report was adopted on January 6, 2009 said they had been handed a raw deal.
Some of them said although they had taken part in the closed-door sitting that adopted the final report of the Chinery-Hesse Committee, they had not been aware that it contained emoluments for ex-presidents.
The Deputy Majority Leader, Mr John Akologu Tia, however, said during the closed-door sitting on that day the then Deputy Majority Leader, who is the current Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, had presented the document to the MPs who were eager to hear about their ex-gratia before the House was dissolved.
He stated that it was only Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu who had a copy of the document during the sitting and he had read the portion that affected the MPs to the House.
He confirmed that although some of the MPs had not been around, majority of them from both sides of the House had been present when the report was adopted.
Mr Tia said because the House had been in a hurry for the dissolution ceremony, and MPs had been anxious to know about their ex-gratia and when that portion of the report was read to them, they hurriedly adopted the report, only to know later that it also contained the emoluments of ex-presidents.
He stated that he knew about some aspects of the draft report, since he had been a member of that Parliament’s Ad-Hoc Committee that dealt with the committee, and criticised the aspect that spelt out emoluments for ex-presidents.
“I can understand the sentiments of my colleagues who are shocked about ex-presidents’ end-of-service package because they had seen a copy of the 181-page report only when the House was about to be dissolved, without being given a chance to read its content,” he said.
Mr Tia mentioned Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, the MP for New Juaben North, as the one who had moved the motion for the adoption of the report but could not recollect the MP who had seconded the motion.
He said the proper procedure had not been followed before the House adopted the report.
Some MPs from the Majority side who spoke to the Daily Graphic, however, insisted that the matter did not come before the House for debate on January 6, 2009.
One of such MPs was the current Majority Chief Whip, Mr E.T. Mensah, who insisted that the issue “must be revisited and reviewed when the House resumes sitting on January 27, 2009”.
“The then Majority side pulled a fast one on us and we will insist that the issue is revisited,” he said.
Other MPs who supported the call for a review of the report included Mr David Assumeng-Tetteh (NDC, Shai-Osudoku) and Mr Rashid Pelpuo (NDC, Wa Central).
When Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was reached on phone, he could not state his side of the issue because he was driving from Kumasi to Accra.
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