Member of Parliament for North Tongu Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
The Member of Parliament for North Tongu Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has slammed Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta describing him as dishonest.
His description of the Minister follows his appearance in the House on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, and the response he gave to the question filed on the cost of foreign travels by the President.
Mr. Ofori-Atta in answering the question said he was not responsible for the foreign travels of the President and that the National Security must be the outfit to answer.
Reacting to the Finance Minister’s response, the MP who filed the question believes there was a cover-up.
“The palpably dishonest efforts to be evasive, elusive and engage in elaborate coverups under the latest guise of national security considerations would not be allowed to succeed.”
He added: “This entire episode now stands out as a monument in infamy on the deception about protecting the public purse and the levels of debauchery to satisfy creature comforts of President Akufo-Addo at the expense of suffering emaciated masses.”
Read his full reaction below:
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta despite knowing that urgent questions must be answered within 10-days still proceeded to contemptuously waste the time of Parliament by well over 7 weeks asking for more time on multiple occasions to provide answers to my urgent question on the cost of President Akufo-Addo’s infamous £15,000 an hour profligate travels only to inform the House this, afternoon after much struggle that, I must now redirect my question to the National Security Minister.
Well, let me be clear — we won’t give up, we won’t fret and we won’t relent.
I have therefore immediately filed an urgent question under Order 64 of Parliament’s Standing Orders for the National Security Minister to appear before the House with a response.
The palpably dishonest efforts to be evasive, elusive and engage in elaborate coverups under the latest guise of national security considerations would not be allowed to succeed.
Parliament cannot be disingenuously stampeded from carrying out its constitutional mandate of financial oversight on executive expenditure.
This entire episode now stands out as a monument in infamy on the deception about protecting the public purse and the levels of debauchery to satisfy creature comforts of President Akufo-Addo at the expense of suffering emaciated masses.
In the spirit of good governance and on the occasion of the birthday of H.E. Prof. John Evans Atta Mills who epitomized modesty and selflessness in public office, we are motivated to soldier on so that never again will millions of taxpayer money be subjected to such gross dissipation within 23 hours of ostentatious travel ironically to go advocate for debt forgiveness.