Ex-Anlo MP Clend Sowu says officials who have already benefited from the disputed Chinery-Hesse Committee (CHC) report must be made to ‘cough up’ the amount.
According to him, as long as there is doubt over the approval of the report by Parliament, all payments made were illegal.
His comments come in the wake of renewed controversy following the review of the Chinery-Hesse report by the Ishmael Yamson Committee (IYC) commissioned by President J.E.A. Mills.
The IYC has proposed two vehicles instead of four recommended by CHC, and one house instead of two.
Mr. Sowu in an interview with Joy News welcomed the recommendations by the IYC, insisting, President Mills has every right to review the committee's report, moreso when its approval by parliament is in question.
He also questioned why the report was brought to parliament on the final day of the last parliament for approval, adding MPs were not given copies of the document to peruse.
Government sources have meanwhile told Joy News the president is studying the report of the Ishmael Yamson report and will issue a white paper soon.
Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa maintains the economy will crumble if attempts were made to implement recommendations of the CHC report.
Some members of the Minority in Parliament have threatened legal action against the president, accusing him of instituting an illegal committee to review work he has no authority over.
Abuakwa MP and lawyer, Atta Akyea in an interview with Joy News’ Dzifa Bampoe questioned the authority of the president to review the CHC.
He said the President should have gone to the Supreme Court to restrain the implementation of the report if he believed what was approved was illegal.
“The president is not parliament,” he charged.
Poisoned chalice?John Ndebugri ex-MP for Zebilla who also feels passionate over the IYC report said a bad precedent is being set and courageous people must not allow the President to have his way.
He argued that comments over the ex-gratia have been tainted so much that any attempt to question the impropriety of the president’s action will be misinterpreted as fighting for money.
“If you are not courageous, any action you take will be taken as you chasing money,” he told Citi News. "It is not about money," he insisted.
Describing the action a breach of the constitution, Mr Ndebugri accused the president of “playing to the gallery.”
He also dismissed assertions that MPs were not given copies of the report before they approved it.
According to him, copies of the new stabilisation bill brought before MPs last week under an NDC Majority in Parliament were also not made available to members.
No committee has the locus to challenge the procedures of parliament, he stressed.
Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana
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