Parliament partly responsible for corruption – Ato Dadzie

A member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ato Dadzie, says Parliament’s failure to properly scrutinize projects presented for approval is partly to blame for recurrent reports of bloated expenditure.
Ato Dadzie says being a key part of government’s machinery, Parliament needs to be strengthened to appropriately check facts and figures contained in the motions presented to the House.
“We have a constitutional order, and the oversight responsibility for financial disbursement and all that is in Parliament. Parliament must do more in terms of investigating and examining documents placed before them,” Ato Dadzie said.
The NDC lawyer was speaking on a special edition of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Thursday, hosted by New Patriotic Party (NPP) member, Gabby Otchere-Darko.
Ato Dadzie was reacting to views that corruption has steeped under the current administration.
Citing the controversial 3.6 million Ghana cedis bus branding deal and the over 500 million Ghana cedis AMERI power plant contract, Gabby Otchere-Darko suggested that the current administration has done a poor job at fighting corruption.
Some analysts say Ghana could have gotten the 235MW power plants that AMERI has provided at a lesser cost.
A Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, K.T. Hammond the committee said he was misled to approve the controversial AMERI power project contract.
According to him, the Power Ministry failed to provide full details of the transaction to the Committee members.
Also, the Chief of Staff has ordered the Attorney General, to recover GHC1.9 million the company that branded the buses.
In an interview on Joy FM, Ato Dadzie said Parliament and other government institutions needs to be strengthened.
 “You shouldn’t come and tell us that you were misled. That is why we put you there. That oversight responsibility is that of Parliament.” Ato Dadzie said.
He said Parliament and state instutions that have the mandate to check graft must invest in capacity building to enable them deliver on their objectives.

Credit: Joy News