Parliament has set up a five-member internal Committee to probe the bribery allegations involving Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko and some leaders of the House.
Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye approved an in-house Committee after a proposal by the Majority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu for a Committee to established.
Earlier, there were suggestions that the matter should be referred to the Priveleges Committee of the Legislative House but the Speaker upheld the proposal for the proposed Committee to launch investigations into the issue, explaining that the allegations of corruption is beyond the reach of the privileges.
He also referred to Standing Order 191 of Parliament, stating emphatically that the order “should also put to rest whether Parliament can inquire into matter A or matter B anytime in the history of this Republic. Parliament, as the representative of the people, is empowered inherently and is recognized in this particular part of our Standing Orders to inquire into any matter from archaeology to zoology, within the republic of Ghana.”
Parliament’s Standing Order 191 establishes that Parliament may at any time, by motion, constitute a special committee to probe matters of public importance.
“Parliament has the power to set up a special committee to investigate into a matter that is of public interest and under that order, I will rule that it is fit and proper for such a committee to be set up accordingly into this matter of public interest,” the Speaker stated.