FORMER Deputy Minister of Defence and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) fire-brand, Dr. Tony Aidoo, has demanded the resignation of Mr. Moses Asaga, the Minority Spokesman on Finance over his inability to study the documents of the CNT loan agreement before stating that the agreement was credible and reliable.

He told The Chronicle in an interview in Accra last week: ?I think that there was a misleading element in the representation of the whole loan package and I think that the person who should take the whole responsibility is Moses Asaga. Either Moses Asaga has behaved very irresponsibly or excuse me to say, he has been incahut with the NPP government.?

He continued, ?I think that he has shown himself to be irresponsible and somebody who has neither the interest of the country nor the NDC at heart. I think that Moses Asaga should do the honourable thing - to resign. How could he have gone to Parliament to make such an irresponsible statement regarding his professionalism when the whole issue regarding due diligence is questionable??

Mr. Asaga was reported to have said in Parliament, in seconding the report on the loan: ?Mr. Speaker, I rise to second the report presented by the chairman and then I would want to make a few comments on this particular loan being contracted by the Ghana Government with the CNT Group Holdings Limited.

?Mr. Speaker, I think that we have come a long way since we had a problem with the IFC loan. A lot of experience in loan agreements that we brought to bear on the IFC loan has now yielded results. I am therefore not surprised that the loan agreement that was laid before your good self was one that had credibility and professionalism.?

Aidoo said Asaga should have assessed the credibility of the Finance Minister, Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, who had presented two loan agreements that were proved to be unworthy.

?He should have operated from the position of doubt -that is where you start from, then you will put the onus on the government and Mr. Osafo-Maafo to establish the credibility of the company and the loan agreement.?

He said he was more interested in the extent to which the irresponsible behavior of Mr. Asaga had implicated the NDC in this particular scenario and that was why he thought that he should resign.

He disagreed with those who thought that he should direct his attack on the government rather than Asaga.

He said: ?As far as we in the NDC are concerned, this government has initiated two processes to dupe this country. This is only the third one. Therefore the question of resignation or whatever is up to that government to act in accordance with its conscience or up to the people of this country to express their dissatisfaction when December 2004 comes. I am more interested in what Asaga said.?

He would not also blame Members of Parliament for wrong doing, saying the whole process of the loan indicated that it was more or less an emergency that was rushed through Parliament.

?The whole issue is misrepresentation. Seriously in the realm of the law of contracts, a contract becomes voidable where the basis of the contracting parties agree, was that of misrepresentation. And each time there is a misrepresentation in the contractual negotiation, the contract becomes voidable.? Reacting to a statement attributed to Mr. Osafo-Maafo that the government would soon gather the necessary data and later inform the public, Dr. Aidoo alleged that the government and Osafo-Maafo were planning to create a new address ?for this new bogus company? with a reachable telephone number as a damage repair to cover the problem of credibility that the government was facing over the loan arrangement.

?They were not going to secure a loan. They were just going to get the government to pay up front, sums of money that the NPP and its people would then distribute among themselves for the purpose of financing the up-coming elections so that they can retain power.

This is the source of it, there is nothing more to that,? he submitted.

He called the government to back out from the negotiations instead of spending Ghana?s money on the issue as it happened in the previous negotiations.

?I am Unperturbed By Tony Aidoo?s Comments? ? Asaga

The former Deputy Defence Minister in the NDC Administration, Dr Tony Aidoo, has reiterated his earlier comments that the Minority Spokesman of Finance, Hon Moses Asaga, should resign from that capacity, since he ?misled? his fellow colleagues in the NDC, to vote in favour of the CNTI loan.
Speaking in an interview on our morning show programme, ?Kokrokoo? on Monday, 17th May, 2004, the outspoken former Deputy Defence Minister stated, that Hon. Moses Asaga acted irresponsibly by not scrutunising the entire alleged CNTI loan scandal.
Reached for his reaction on this issue, Hon Moses Asaga stated that he is unperturbed by Dr Tony Aidoo?s calls for his resignation.
According to him, since what Dr Aidoo said is his (Aidoo?s) personal opinion and not the party?s official stance, he still remains unresolved in his duties towards the NDC.