Member of Parliament for Bongo, Edward Bawa is asking President Nana Akufo-Addo to sack his Executive Secretary, Nana Bediatuo Asante, for his role in the botched ‘renegotiated’ deal that has cost Mr. Boakye Agyarko’s job.
Nana Bediatuo in a letter dated July 25, announced the President has given executive approval “for the operation and maintenance” of the controversially renegotiated deal by Mytilineos International Company as sought by Mr. Agyarko in a letter dated July 24, 2018.
Parliament was forced to suspend consideration of the bill covering the new deal as it failed to come with the requisite document. MPs demanded that government provided further and better particulars on the new deal before it rose for recess last.
Before the documents could be provided by the Energy Ministry, reports emerged the President was misled in giving the approval to the agreement which has widely been criticised by experts in the energy sector as not being in the interest of Ghana.
Consequently, the President reportedly has since caused the agreement to be cancelled.
Commenting on the issue Tuesday following the dismissal of the Energy Minister Monday, the MP said Nana Bediatuo should be sacked for failing to do due diligence.
“If the Minister of Energy is going, the Executive Secretary should also be going. If he is a man of right conscience, he should be out of his office now,” Mr. Bawa said on 3FM’s Sunrise morning show.
“Remember that when the document leaves the Ministry of Energy and gets to the Flagstaff House, the document becomes a document of the Flagstaff House. Now the Flagstaff House looks through the document, looks at the contract and everything and gives an executive approval,” he stated.
Mr. Bawa wondered whether Nana Bediatuo went “through the document as a lawyer”, adding “Did he make sure he had all the information available to him?”
He added that the Executive Secretary should let Ghanaians know if he just signs documents as and when it is brought to him, without going through them.
In his view, Nana Akufo-Addo should not be commended for sacking just the Energy Minister.
“The argument that people are making that the president has done well by sacking this gentleman is praise in the wrong direction,” he added.