Asmah Lies, 300 Fish Cartons’ Prices Inflated For X’mas

An attempt by the Minister of Fisheries Mrs. Gladys Asmah to pull a fast one on the Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Constitution and Legal, in a bid to get it to endorse the amendment of the Fishery Act, has been uncovered and subsequently rejected.

Contrary to provisions enshrined in the Sections of the Fisheries regulations which spell out clearly, the setting up of a Commission to perform a supervisory role, the Minister, by some strange reason, has failed to put it in place for reasons that do not sit well with the established order.

The rejection of the amendment occurred as a result of the Minister’s inability to convince the Sub-committee that indeed, a Commission with a Supervisory role as mandated by law had been set up to oversee, support, suggest, raise concerns on the Ministry’s workings.

In an attempt to bulldoze her way through, Mrs Asmah stated that “in exercise of the powers conferred on the Minister responsible for Fisheries by SECTION 139 (1) of the Fisheries Act, 2002 (Act 625) and on the recommendations of the COMMISSION, these regulations are made this 12th day of January 2007” when indeed there was no such Fisheries Commission in place.

This obvious goof forms the basis for the rejection of the draft or amendment by the Parliamentary Sub Committee on Constitution and Legal.

According to unimpeachable Parliamentary sources, before such a bill could be approved by Parliament, the Fisheries Commission has to make a recommendation but for reasons known only to the Minister she chose to draft it and walked to Parliament to seek approval.

In an interview with the assistant director of the Ministry Mr Alex Adu Antwi, the amendment was not rejected but insisted that THE SUN produces its source before he could comment any further.

When THE SUN questioned him as to a said ¢40 million belonging to the state went missing in his car, a yawning Mr. Adu Antwi said he could not recall the exact amount involved, but submitted that the chunk of the missing cash was his except that, he thought between ¢1 and ¢2 million of the cash belonged to the state.

The assistant director said the incident occurred some two years ago when he had returned from trek only for armed robbers to break into his car to make away with the cash, a matter he claims he reported to the Police. However information reaching THE SUN emphatically attests to the fact that the money involved was ¢40 million.

Pressed by THE SUN to tell just which Police Station he reported to, not even words of nationalistic nature and pampering would make Adu Antwi forthcoming. THE SUN’s investigative team is still scraping through pieces of evidence being supplied by elements who were privy to a whole lot of rubbish including the inflating of the price of 300 cartons of RED FISH meant for protocol only last December, all purchased by Adu Antwiand bogus vessels registrations...