GAGGED NPP MP INVOKES CONSTITUTION AGAINST GT SALE

...His colleagues plead with him not to comment on the issue on the floor of Parliament

By Ebenezer Hanson

Despite being prevailed upon by his colleagues not comment on the controversial sale of GT on the floor of Parliament yesterday, Hon. Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori, the NPP MP for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa in an earlier interview with Public Agenda, pointed out that portions of the Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) of the 70% shares of GT to Vodafone are in clear violation of the anti-corruption provisions of the 1992 Constitution.He says until those aspects are deleted, Parliament should not approve the SPA. The anti-corruption campaigner after last Wednesday’s sitting of Parliament cited Articles 6.1.6 and 10.7 as some of the offending portions of the SPA that are null and void in the face of the Constitution. Article 6.1.6 of the Agreement stipulates, “There shall not be any injunction or order that prohibits or restrains the sale of the Shares by the GOG [Government of Ghana] to the Purchaser in Particular or generally.” Similarly, Article 10.7 says “GOG hereby waives and undertakes that it will not at any time bring any claim or prosecution against any member of the enlarged GT Group …. in respect of any act of such member or director relating to Anti-corruption Warranties which arise from or otherwise relates to the period prior to closing.” Hon. Appiah-Ofori submits, “These aspects of the SPA are worrying at least in the face of two articles of the Constitution. Article 35(8) of the Constitution provides in explicit terms that the State shall take steps to eradicate corrupt practices and the abuse of power. And Article 1(2) also states the Constitution shall be the supreme law of Ghana and any other law found to be inconsistent with any provision of this Constitution shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void. Therefore Parliament cannot approve the agreement if there are aspects which violate the Constitution. They must be deleted from the agreement.” The MP’s concerns are shared by the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), an NGO, which cites the same provisions among others as some of the reasons why the GT-Vodafone should be rejected by Parliament. ISODEC says the “No Injunction” clause of Article 6.1.6 amounts to ousting the jurisdiction of the Courts of Ghana. “This is tantamount to a complete ouster of the jurisdiction of the courts of this country in administering justice as far as the Agreement is concerned. By our Constitution, the authority of our Courts to handle or pry into matters legal particularly in relation to the prerogative writs cannot be fettered, not even by Parliament,” ISODEC argued in a document entitled “Vodafone Fact Sheet Highlights-Legal and Economic Issues Arising” . Similarly, on Article 10.7, ISODEC comments thus: “Did the Government understand this provision? When even pick-pockets at Tema Station or Kejetia are not spared for petty thefts, Government which was given the mandate to run the affairs of this country is by this provision sanctioning corruption”. In ISODEC’s view the SPA is against public interest and offends natural justice, equity and good conscience. It serves notice that “Every MP, including the Speaker, who would approve the Vodafone Agreement for implementation, would risk committing a serious breach of faith which may have the potential of culminating to intentionally causing financial loss to the State.” Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament rejected the SPA premising their reasons on several grounds. In their opinion, there has been lack of openness and transparency and that the exclusive and confidential negotiations with Vodafone denied other bidders who could have offered higher values for GT. Again, some of them said they were convinced that GT has been undervalued, and that the enlarged GT being offered for sale does not reflect the financial value and worth of GT, particularly with the inclusion of the fibre assets. For instance, the Minority Spokesperson on Communications, Hon. Iddrisu Haruna, was of the view that the GT University College should be decoupled from the 70% assets sale and aligned to either the University of Ghana or the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).