Prof. Mike Oquaye, the Speaker of Parliament has given Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, a 48 hour ultimatum to respond to questions on the controversial KelniGVG contract.
The decision of the Speaker comes in the wake of her continual absence from the House on three different occasions.
Samuel George, Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram had postured some questions to the Minister on the $89 million deal meant to monitor revenue mobilization from the mobile telecommunication companies.
Basically, his enquiry was premised on the status of the incremental revenue accrued by the state since its engagement with the company.
In Parliament on Wednesday, when her time to address the House was up, the Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told the House he cannot locate the Minister.
“I have been trying to locate the Minister. Unfortunately, I have not been able to touch base with her. She could come, and when she comes, we may vary the order of business and allow the Minister to come and respond to the questions,” he said.
Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu
However, Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, protested that the minister’s non-appearance is untenable. He expressed worry over the development adding that “even the answers have not been provided.”
“I don’t want to impugn the wrong motive to say it is deliberate and the minister is avoiding to answer these questions. We have a responsibility as a house to get ministers to be accountable.
Muntaka Mubarak
“Mr. Speaker, this is the third time… Mr. Speaker, I hope you give the right directive so that the minster will come and answer these questions necessarily without further delay.”
Speaker Prof Mike Oquaye revealed that the Communication Minister had sent in a letter on August 3 to be absent from the House.
He was quick to note that, despite the permissions sought, she had not provided answers for questions expected to be posed.
He, however, directed that the minister avails herself on Friday, August 7, without fail.
“To cut a long story short, I direct that the minister must answer all the relevant questions and make herself available on Friday,” he said.
Kelni GVG Deal Is Clean–Minister Ursula Fights Back
On May 31, 2018, Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful rejected accusations of corruptions and underhand dealings in the award of the revenue assurance monitoring contract to Kelni-GVG.
In a statement to Parliament, Ursula Owusu indicated that the 178 million dollar contract is the best deal the country can get for the kind of service that is being provided.
She further stated that all the equipment for the execution of the contract will be owned by the country after a period of five years.
“Mr. Speaker, the fee for this transaction, $1.49 million per month, (as against the $2.6 million paid monthly to both Subah and Afriwave) is within the industry average for Platform as a Service (PaaS) contracts of this nature. The vendors have already procured and delivered equipment worth over $50m as part of the contract sum, at no extra cost to the state and this represents significant cost savings to the nation,” the Minister said.
