The five-member ad-hoc Parliamentary committee which was set up to investigate allegations by Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga that Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko had attempted to bribe his way through vetting has found Mr Ayariga in contempt of Parliament.
Mr Ayariga, a member of the Appointments Committee on Friday, January 27, alleged that  Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko whose ministerial nomination had been withheld at the time, had attempted to bribe the minority members of the Appointments Committee with GHC3,000 each to influence them to confirm his nomination.
"We were expecting to be given our committee sitting allowances, and we were promised by our chairman that it will come very soon, and we were called to pick up money from our Whip [Mohammed Muntaka]. We picked it up and assumed that it was our allowances and then later we heard rumours in the house and we called our leader and asked him where is the money coming from, he said it came from the Chairman [Joe Osei-Owusu] but chairman said it was coming from Boakye Agyarko so that is where we realised that we can't take money from Boakye Agyarko, so we asked him to take his money back, we are not interested,†he explained on Radio Gold.
Though the Honourables Osei-Owusu and Muntaka later denied the allegations, some minority MPs including Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (North Tongu) and Alhassan Suhuyini (Tamale South) corroborated Mr Ayariga's claim.
Speaker of Parliament, Right Honourable Professor Mike Ocquaye in agreement with the leaders of the House, set up the ad-hoc committee to investigate the bribery claims which began its sitting which was aired on national television work on February 15.Â
After hearing the testimonies of Messrs Osei-Owusu, Ayariga, Muntaka and Ablakwa; and two others in-camera the committee presented a 44-page report to the House on Wednesday, the debate for which was deferred to today [Thursday], March 30.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament before the debate began, Chairman of the Committee, Mr Joe Ghartey explained that having heard the witnesses and conducted their own investigations they had concluded that "Mr Ayariga failed to prove indeed that Hon. Boakye Agyarko gave money to Hon. Joseph Osei-Owusu to be distributed to members of the Appointments Committee with a view to bribe them".
According to him, a review of the CCTV footage of the day suggested by Mr Ayariga and his supporters that they returned the envelopes containing the supposed bribe could not prove that they [Ayariga and co] had returned any envelopes as they claimed.
Juxtaposing the terms of reference of the committee and the facts before it, the Committee thus "came to the firm conclusion that Mr Mahama Ayariga is in Contempt of Parliament on the strength of Article 122 of the 1992 Constitution, Section 32 of the Parliament Act 1965 (Act 300) and Orders 28 and 30 (2) of the Standing Orders of Parliament".
The Committee subsequently recommended:
"That the Hon. Member for Bawku Central, Mr Mahama Ayariga, be reprimanded by the Rt. Hon. Speaker in accordance with Section 35 of the Parliament Act, 1965 (Act 300).
"That Mr Mahama Ayariga renders an unqualified apology to the House, purging himself of contempt".
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