EX-SPEAKER ERRED

Frontpage, June 2, 2009
THE Parliamentary Service Board (PSB) has officially faulted the ex-Speaker of the House, Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, for illegally taking away furnishings from his official residence after the end of his tenure.
In its reaction to the ex-Speaker’s response to an ad hoc committee report on the affair, the PSB also expressed regret at Mr Hughes’s conduct, noting that he did it without authority.
“The PSB regrets the conduct of the former Speaker in relation to the issue on furnishings and disposal of same without proper authority,” it said.
An official statement signed by the Director of Public Affairs of Parliament, Mr Jones Kugblenu, said, “The board has decided that the former Speaker should return all the items to the official residence of the Speaker within 10 days to enable the board to conclude this regrettable matter.”
The 10-day ultimatum is expected to expire by Friday next week.
It explained that the board’s attention was drawn to the matter on Thursday, March 12 during its first meeting and it subsequently enquired from the former Speaker about the whereabouts of the items.
According to the statement, since the board received evasive responses from the ex-Speaker, it scheduled an emergency meeting to decide on its next line of action.
It added that before the emergency meeting could be held on May 26, 2009, the board received a letter from the solicitors of the former Speaker expressing his willingness to return the items he took and explaining that “he took the items on a bona fide claim of right”.
It said the board was also aware of several allusions made by the former Speaker and other commentators concerning payments made to the leadership of Parliament for non-procured soft furnishing items and an alleged existing convention which allowed the leadership and senior staff of the service to retain soft furnishings on leaving office.
It insisted that the service kept records of all items in the households of the Speaker and members of the leadership, adding that the existing practice was that every item was issued through stores, while the Development Department delivered the items to their intended destinations.
The statement said Mr Hughes was the first occupant of the official residence meant for the Speaker and moved into it in late December 2006.
“The Speaker had spent almost two years of his four-year term living in the State House. In reality, the former Speaker stayed in the permanent official residence for almost two years, a time too short to underscore the point that some of the items might have suffered any appreciable wear and tear,” it said.
It stated that although the Speaker of the First and the Second Parliaments of the Fourth Republic, Mr Justice D.F. Annan, lived in a public residence, items supplied for his official use were returned on his leaving office.
The statement noted that the Speaker of the Third Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey, lived in his private residence throughout his tenure of office and was supplied with few items, adding that when he retired rent for which he would have benefited for living in his private residence, instead of the official residence, was refused him on the basis of the cost of the items supplied.
It explained further that two former Clerks to Parliament, Messrs Samuel Ntim Darkwa and Rex Owusu-Ansah, lived in government bungalows but were not officially supplied with any furnishing items and could not have gone away with anything official.
It added, however, that it was the immediate past Clerk to Parliament, Mr K.E.K. Tachie, who had six-year-old sitting room furnishing and beds in his possession.
On the assertion that GH¢195,200 was approved and paid by the board of the Fourth Parliament to leadership for furnishing items not procured for them, the statement explained that even though the board gave the approval, nothing was paid because the Clerk to Parliament expressed difficulty in the implementation of the decision, since the amount was not captured in the 2008 budget for the Office of Parliament.
“The PSB wishes to reiterate that no such payment has been made till date. The board also wishes to succinctly state that aside the leadership, the clerk was requested to confer with the then Chairman of the PSB, Mr Hughes, to discuss the non-procured items and other related matters affecting the chairman. There was, however, no discussion with the former Speaker as directed,” the statement added.