OSP ends Parliament bribery probe over lack of cooperation by MPs

The Office of the Special Prosecutor has brought its investigations into an alleged bribery scandal in Parliament involving a supposed wealthy businessman in Ghana.

According to the OSP, it was compelled to bring the probe to an end because the main accuser in the case, the Member of Parliament for Asante-Akim-North, Andy Appiah Kubi has not been cooperative.

It added that, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu who also made a similar claim “denied direct knowledge of the matter” during the probe.

The OSP in its report dated December 28, 2023, said “Mr. Appiah-Kubi’s refusal to cooperate with the investigation and his refusal to disclose the identity of the suspect are most regrettable. It is quite perplexing for a Member of Parliament to level accusations of attempted bribery on a person (whether certain or uncertain) in a most spectacular and public manner on a network of a major media house and then stage a bizarre volte-face by refusing to cooperate with the investigation and refusing to disclose and/or confirm the identity of the suspect.”

The OSP started its investigations in 2023 over allegations that a wealthy businessman tried inducing Members of Parliament on the Majority side to back down on their demands for the dismissal of the Minister of FInance, Ken Ofori-Atta.

Andy Appiah Kubi and over 50 New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs in 2022 called for the removal of the Finance Minister.

The MPs later softened their stance after meeting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the matter.

They kowtowed to the President’s pleas to have the Minister stay in office to seal Ghana’s bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The OSP in its report explained that although it is convinced that a “certain well-known wealthy Ghanaian businessman visited Parliament House circa 1 October 2022 and requested a meeting with a section of NPP Members of Parliament and that the businessman in question had attempted to offer them money to influence their demand for the resignation or removal of Mr. Ofori-Atta, and that Mr. [Name witheld by the OSP] is the businessman in question – the rehearsed and choreographed refusal to cooperate and continued refusal to cooperate by the accuser and vital key, Mr. Appiah-Kubi, produce the very unhappy result that there is not enough probative evidence (direct or circumstantial) to sustain the institution of criminal proceedings against theOSP’s identified suspect.”

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