Ursula Owusu, the Minister of Communication & Digitalisation
The MInistry of Communications and Digitilisation has debunked claims that Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Semana Bagbin has directed government to present Airtel-Tigo acquisition deal before the House for approval.
According to the Ministry, the speaker made a mere comments with regards to the Finance ministry.
Reports suggested that the MoCD has been given a directive by the Speaker of Parliament to present the Airtel-Tigo acquisition document to Parliament for approval.
However, a rejoinder from the Communications Ministry stated that “The attention of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD ) has been drawn to a social media report carried on the online portal “www.Ghanaweb.com” published on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, under the headline “Speakerbdirectsbgovt to present Airtel-Tigo aquisition deal-before Parliament for approval.
“For the Records, the Speaker did not give any such directive. He merely made general comments to the Ministry of Finance.”
The statement explained that the speaker said “Ministry of Finance, kindly take note, we have given you a number of promptings to write officially to us attaching agreements that Ministers have entered into with various agencies for us to work on; as at today after one year, it has not been done. And we cannot depend on documents from those agencies as authentic documents to work with.
“We deal with government and so when you enter into those agreements with private sector or whatever, we will depend on your communication and the documents that you will attach to your communications to work with.”
The Ministry pointed out that at no point did the Speaker direct that any specific transaction be presented before Parliament for approval.
“As was stated by the Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (MP), in her answer to Parliament, the MoCD oversees the telecom ICT Sector in full compliance with the laws of the land and will complete all legal and constitutional processes for the acquisition of Airtel-Tigo by the end of this meeting in Parliament,” it stated.
BY Vincent Kubi