The Deputy Minister for Gender and Social Protection nominee, Francisca Oteng-Mensah, has denied any wrongdoing in the procurement of sanitisers during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Kwabre East MP was accused of a conflict of interest as the Board Chairperson of the National Youth Authority (NYA) in 2020.
She was accused of using her influence to supervise the board to pay GH¢700,000 to Adonko Company – a subsidiary of the Angel Group of Companies which she is a director and shareholder.
But the nominee says she had no idea that the NYA Board was working towards purchasing sanitisers from Adonko Company.
“As the Chairperson, I was not a member of the Entity Tender Committee and so I wasn’t on the committee at that time. Also, I had no idea they were purchasing from Adonko Company Limited at that time.
“It got to a time when we were at the peak of Covid-19 season. In fact, if we all recall, getting access to sanitisers was a huge challenge and so everybody including members of Parliament were struggling to go anywhere that they could get sanitisers to give to their people,” she told the Committee,” she told the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Thursday.
Ms Oteng-Mensah, who maintained she is not guilty of the allegations of conflict of interest, justified the sanitisers were also purchased from other companies.
“At that point, in that state of emergency, nothing of that sort came to me and so I find it difficult to accept that there is any conflict of interest.
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“It was afterwards that I got to know that they even purchased some number of sanitisers from Adonko Company Limited. And they didn’t just purchase from Adonko Company Limited, per my checks, they also purchased from other companies,” she justified.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice is currently investigating Ms Francisca Oteng-Mensah on the allegations.
She has, however, expressed hope the Commission will exonerate her of any wrongdoing though she admitted the company belongs to her father and she is a shareholder.
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