Former Minister for Youth and Sports, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak yesterday made his first appearance at the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) probing him, admitting that he introduced his supposed ‘girlfriend’ Edith Zinayela to his former Ministry as his secretary.

Muntaka however denied having any romantic or amorous relationship with the said lady, who was a secretary to Alban Bagbin at the time they travelled to Germany together. He also denied influencing the processes that led to her acquisition of the German visa which enabled her to travel with him.

CHRAJ is investigating him for allegedly “fraudulently acquiring a German visa for his girlfriend, Edith Zinayela, under the pretext that she was an employee of the Ministry of Youth and Sports when Ms. Edith is an employee of the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana.”

He narrated the circumstances leading to the inclusion of the lady on the trip to Germany together with then acting Director of the National Sports Council (NSC), Charles Aryeh and one Kofi Kukubor, who facilitated the trip on behalf of the sporting kit company, Puma.

At the time he assumed the position, Muntaka said the Ministry was understaffed and so he could not have taken his secretary along on the Germany trip- a trip which was an all-expense one including flight, accommodation, food and others paid for by Puma with the exception of the visa application fee.

According to the embattled former minister, the trip, which was at the behest of Puma, was to explore avenues for the company to sponsor the national sports associations with kits, emphasizing that all the three persons who went with him on the trip went for a purpose.

The former Minister, who is also the sitting Member of Parliament (MP)for Asawase in the Ashanti region, said he followed established precedent and recommended Edith whose competence he could vouch for and therefore recommended her for consideration at a management meeting.

Edith, who was then secretary to the Majority leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin, was to serve as their secretary while in Germany.

“It was agreed that if I take my secretary, what it’s going to mean is that my office is going to be closed. So if I take any secretary within the block because we didn’t have enough of them (sic),” he noted.

For this reason, he said, “I just said, okay can that be left with me to deal with and it was agreed at that management meeting. So when I talked to the Chief Director that….can I bring a Secretary from the Majority secretariat (sic).”

An obviously frustrated Muntaka added “and all I did, Mr. Commissioner I know I’m under oath, was to submit the name and the telephone number of this lady. That was all.”

The former Minister said he submitted her name to the Chief Director of the Ministry, stressing that it was the Ministry and not he who applied for Edith’s visa for her since a Deputy Director at the same Ministry, Allen Agbenator was given that responsibility.

He tendered in copies of letters which were sent to the German Embassy to provide the needed assistance to him and members of his delegation for the trip and a copy of letter requesting a visa for Edith as evidence.

Muntaka also denied claims that his supposed ‘girlfriend’ was paid any per diem since no such facility was available.

Instead, he said it was only him and Charles Aryeh who took what he described as ‘abated’ (not full) per diem, indicating that Kofi Kukubor was also not paid anything.

Asked whether it was a standard practice for people who are not staff of the Ministry to be co-opted to travel with the Minister on foreign trips, as in the case of Edith Zinayela who is now at large, Muntaka answered in the affirmative and cited an instance in the year 2007 where a similar thing was done for one Georgina Abankwa, a Marketing and Advertising Manager at the same Ministry.

Muntaka thus tendered in a copy of the request for visa for Georgina Abankwa but the issues that it generated alone made his lawyers, William Kissi Agyebeng, a criminal law lecturer at the University of Ghana, and Kwesi Baffoe Instiful, to withdraw it immediately as evidence.

Hearing has been adjourned to Monday, October 4, 2010.