Manasseh Azure Awuni an award-winning investigative journalist has revealed that nothing in parliament moved without money changing hands.
He claimed that a former member of parliament revealed this to him and a CEO of a state agency corroborated the information.
Manasseh Azure Awuni further claimed that State institutions appearing before parliamentary committees had to pay money.
Manasseh Azure Awuni wrote on X, “ Chapter Twenty-Five of “The President Never Got” reveals the inner workings of Parliament and how a former MP said nothing moved in the House without money changing hands”.
“State institutions appearing before parliamentary committees, including the Public Accounts Committee, had to pay money to the MPs before they could be heard. A CEO of a state agency corroborated this”, his post added.
Manasseh Azure Awuni further revealed that the Appointments Committee routinely received cash from the Office of the President during the vetting of ministerial nominees.
According to Manasseh Azure, the immediate past First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu and the former NDC’s Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, confirmed this to him in his book.
In a post on social media, he wrote, “The cash payment was to provide a level playing ground for nominees who could not pay. That practice started in 2009 and had remained. (I’m yet to know if that’s happening in the current vetting). The committee members took the weekly payments from the Jubilee House even though they were officially paid by parliament for their time on the vetting committee”.
“The two MPs, however, denied the bribery allegation by Mahama Ayariga and other NDC MPs during the vetting of Boakye Agyarko in 2017”, he added.
Manasseh Azure Awuni further added, “ The Deputy Speaker also told me in the recorded interview I had before writing the book that some nominees often wanted to pay money through him and when he told them it wasn’t required, they didn’t believe him”.
See his post below:
In “The President Ghana Never Got,” the immediate past First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu and the former NDC’s Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, confirmed to me that the Appointments Committee of Parliament routinely received cash payment from the… pic.twitter.com/LiJqjgkWo3
— Manasseh Azure Awuni (@Manasseh_Azure) January 29, 2025
