Speaker in the dock over cronyism, subterfuge
Some staff of Parliament House are accusing the Speaker of Parliament, the Right Honourable Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, of turning the House into a family business entity.

In a little over two years in office as Speaker of the august House, Rt Hon Begyina Sekyi-Hughes is alleged to have appointed his close relatives into the Service either through the Parliamentary Services Appointment Board (PSAB), or created un-existing portfolios for them to work in Parliament.

For instance, the Speaker, according to reliable sources, has established departments such as the Directorates of IT, Archives and Printing for close allies and has also increased the number of Deputy Clerks from three to five, including the appointment of one Mrs Rose Keddey as Second Deputy Clerk, sidelining others she came to meet.

Interestingly, the Director of Printing, one Mr. Quayson, who was single-handedly appointed by the Speaker, owns a printing company in Takoradi where parliamentary literatures are printed, thereby creating a serious conflict of interest situation in the oversight arm of government.

The Speaker is further accused of appointing a close relative, one Kwasi Eshun, currently a student at the Ghana Law School, as the Director of Research, "when there are experienced and highly educated brains in the Service", aggrieved workers told this paper.

Some Parliamentary staffers this paper spoke to complained that since taking over as the Speaker of Parliament from Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey, Hon. Sekyi-Hughes has managed to sideline most of the senior staff of the Service and appointed new people to do the same job done by the others.

According to some of the workers, though the Service advertises for its positions before appointments are made, those close relations of the Speaker always come out as the favourites of the PSAB.

Narrating the numerous underhand dealings the Speaker is alleged to have undertaken since assuming office but on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, many of the workers related that the phenomenon in the House is being repeated in the Speaker's household.

They cited an incident where "Mr Speaker" dismissed all the house supporting staffers sent to his house to assist in managing the house and replaced them with relatives of the wife.

Again, according to our sources, after shortlisting three applicants for the position of Clerk of Parliament last year, the Speaker is allegedly delaying the process to enable his favourite, who was late in submitting his application for the position, to do so by re-advertising the position.

The Parliamentary Service Board headed by the Speaker has, about a month ago, caused for the re-run of the advert in the Daily Graphic concerning the position of the Clerk.

This is said to have incurred the displeasure of the deputy and principal assistant clerks of the House. They maintain that the re-run of the advertisement and the increase of the years of experience from 15 to 18 years as well as the provision of an alternative qualification in the advert is a deliberate scheme by the power that be to have an outsider who did not meet the deadline for the submission of applications become the next clerk of Parliament.

When this paper contacted the Director of Public Affairs of Parliament, Mr. Jones Kugblenu, he dismissed the accusations relating to the appointments, arguing that the current Clerk, Mr. Tarkyi, who was due for retirement last December had to be contracted for three more months because the Appointments Committee was dissatisfied with the performance of the three shortlisted applicants for the job.

On Mrs Rose Keddey's appointment as the Second Deputy Clerk, , he said the lady was appointed mainly due to her competence and qualifications, explaining that she has a Masters Degree in finance and that her qualification might have informed the Committee to appoint her as the Second Deputy Clerk.

He added that the backgrounds of the Deputy Clerks she (Mrs Keddey) came to meet were not related to administration.

Mr Kugblenu suggested that this reporter talk to some of the board members, especially the Chairman, Mr. Darko Mensah, to enable this paper appreciate what transpired during the interviews.

However, when contacted, Mr Darko Mensah insisted that a copy of the said advert be produced by this reporter before he would speak on the issue. Yet, when this reporter later provided the advertisement to enable Mr. Mensah comment on the subject, he refused, and continued to refuse several requests spanning over two months.

Being at his evasive best, he pretended to be extremely busy attending meetings.

At one of such occasions, this reporter spotted him at the new block under construction behind the main Parliament building chatting with some MPs, after he had informed the receptionist that he was at a meeting outside Parliament house.

In an interview with the Minority Leader and member of the board, Mr. Alban Bagbin, he said the board decided to re-advertise the position of the Clerk primarily due to the abysmal performance of the three shortlisted applicants.

He noted that he knew the three very well since he had worked with them in the House. However, he said he could see at the interview session that they were tensed, something he said, might have caused their poor performance at the interview.

He added that the three were given a second chance to re-apply because of the board's desire to give them another opportunity, adding: "In fact I must say that they performed poorly on the day but we also have some problems on the board which need attention. Some of us on the board do not know how to award points in an interview. While some were awarding too high marks for some applicants others were awarding too low marks".

He continued that "but finally the current First Deputy Clerk, Mr John Agama, topped the others, but the difference and the scores were too low".

Asked whether it was not because the board's favourite, Prof. Ken Attafuah, was unable to meet the deadline for the submission of applications and that the board was allegedly being manipulated by their Chairman to re-advertise the position to enable him do so, Mr Bagbin responded that prior to the interview nobody had mentioned the name of Prof Attafuah, recalling that he got to know that Prof Attafuah was interested in the job recently at a Kofi Anann's lectures at the International Conference centre when the two met.

"It was then that Prof Attafuah informed me that he had wanted to apply for the job but his application was late and I said "oh! Sorry," he noted.

He added that at the time the advert was caused to be re-published, none of them (board members) knew that the position would be re-advertised as the board had not taken that decision.

However, this paper's deep throat enquiries in the House confirm that the decision to re-advertise the position was taken two weeks after the interview, when the board recommended that Mr. Tarkyi be given a three month's contract whiles they search for a new Clerk.

Meanwhile, all attempts to speak to the Speaker himself proved futile. Stay tuned.