The Minority in Parliament has asked that the controversial Agyapa Royalties Agreement Deal be completely withdrawn and scrapped.
According to Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, it is very unlikely for the Minority to change its stance on the issue even if presented to Parliament a second time for review.
This comes on the back of the President’s directive to Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to resubmit the contract to Parliament for review after a Risk of Corruption Assessment report by Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, was presented to him on Monday.
In the report, Mr Amidu red-flagged the deal and insisted that a number of processes were deliberately sidestepped.
Mr Iddrisu, in an interview with Joy News, maintained that Parliament could not remedy the defects of the transaction, as identified by the Special Prosecutor.
“How is Parliament going to cure nepotism and cronyism? How is Parliament going to cure that you appointed a Chief Executive without due process and that you passed a resolution on a non-existing law? You don’t build a house on nothing, and the deal was built on nothing.
“How is Parliament going to cure that a motion is moved and the motion is amended at the very time it was to be adopted to make room to wait for a president to assent to a bill so passed by parliament?”
On his part, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, says concluding the agreement cannot be reviewed as premature and that the House will only know what amendments need to be done if it is presented with the details of the referral.
“If it comes back to us and we have a second look and believe that given the additional information, some amendment may have to be proffered, we will do that,” he noted.
He added that the referral may be rejected if Parliament does not acknowledge the defects identified by the Special Prosecutor.
