By William
Yaw Owusu
Tuesday April
17, 2018
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the
Ghana Police Service has granted police enquiry bail to some former ministers
in the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government and Members of
Parliament (MPs), who have been caught in an alleged double-salary scandal.
The formal arrest and the grant of bail are said to
have started last Thursday when some of the appointees honoured the CID
invitation.
It is unclear the number of the former appointees
who honoured the police invitation, but DAILY GUIDE understands that
Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, MP for Ellembelle and Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, MP for
Kpone Katamanso, are said to have been interrogated by the police.
More of the appointees are expected at the Financial
Forensic Unit at the CID headquarters this week, with Inusah Fuseini - who
served as Minister of Roads and Highways under President Mahama - indicating
during a number of radio interviews that he is reporting today.
As at press time yesterday, another NDC MP, whose
name could not be disclosed, was said to have arrived at the CID office to be
interrogated.
A certain Bashir Fuseini Alhassan, who is believed
to be ABA Fuseini, NDC MP for Sagnerigu and former deputy minister for the
Northern Region, was also there last week and was made to write a statement
before being admitted to bail.
All those who have been to the CID headquarters and
are said to be technically under arrest were made to write statements before
they were granted bail. They all honoured the invitations with their lawyers.
According to sources, the police had already written
to the accounts department of parliament for more information concerning the
double salary saga.
The affected people have also been asked to submit
their bank statements.
Frantic
Efforts
Over the weekend, some of the former NDC appointees
being investigated were said to be making frantic efforts to submit their bank
statements to the CID.
It emerged that a number of them sent their bank
statements for scrutiny by the CID, despite the claim by top-notch members of
the party that the move to investigate them was a case of ‘political
witch-hunt.’
Anomaly
Detection
DAILY
GUIDE learnt that some of the former ministers cum MPs,
who allegedly drew salaries as MPs and ministers of state, detected the double
salary anomaly and notified the authorities for the right thing to be done.
However, it is unclear whether the monies that had
already been credited to the accounts of such people were returned to chest.
Bernard Allotey Jacobs, NDC Central Regional
Chairman, who conceded that some of the ex-ministers who were MPs actually
received double salaries, said they were ready to use their ex-gratia to offset
them.
It’s not clear if they had ever been paid double
from 2013 to 2016 as being alleged.
In all, about 48 names are on the list spanning five
years from 2012.
Inside
Job
Mr Bagbin, the second deputy speaker of parliament
and NDC MP for Nadowli/Kaleo, has already confirmed that he had been contacted
by the CID.
On his Twitter handle on Wednesday, April 11 - after
the minority’s press conference - Mr Bagbin alleged that some selfish
individuals who want to lead the opposition party might have leaked the names
to the CID.
“If anybody thinks that leaking our names to the
police CID thwarts our chances and advances their selfish claim to leadership
in our party, then my brother, think again because when we go down, we go down
together. A word to the wise...,” according to the tweet.
Haruna Iddrisu had also been contacted and is likely
to meet the CID on Thursday, April 19, having told the police that he was out
of the country.
Specific
Charge
The police have said that the alleged double salary
saga “is contrary to Section 124 (1) of the Criminal and other Offences Act
1960 (Act 29) as amended in 2012 (Act 849).
Section 124 relates to the offence of stealing.”
The list appears to show that a good number of the
ministers, who served under former President John Mahama, took double salaries
for four years, whilst others received double salaries for two and three years,
probably because they were reshuffled.
Salary
Permutation
In 2012, four of the ministers, who reportedly took
double salaries, are currently not serving in parliament, but by 2013 the
double salaried appointees had increased to 22 while in 2014 about 18 were said
to have been involved.
For 2015 and 2016, 15 and 12 appointees purportedly
took double salaries respectively.
This list showed that the appointees received double
salaries at least once a month, whilst others received them monthly throughout
the years.
Clear
Target
In the ensuing heat, one of the affected MPs, Inusah
Fuseini, said on Peace FM yesterday
that the NPP government was targeting them, saying, “There is some level of
criminal targeting of former appointees.
“It appears that the value of fairness, equity and
justice is not being followed. If a public servant has been given a double
salary, they are not reported to CID. The person is called to refund the money
and if that is not done, that is when you report the person to an investigative
authority. But this was not done... why the discrimination?”
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