National Lottery Authority (NLA) ‘Bribed’ Parliamentarians Ghc 100,000 To Push Lottery Act Amendment – REPORT

Yet another bribery scandal has hit Ghana’s supposed ‘August’ House as Members of Parliament admit to taking cash from the National Lottery Authority (NLA), which they used to pay each other per diems/allowances during deliberations over whether to pass a bill directly affecting the Authority.

The bill was the amendment to the National Lottery Act, which was eventually passed to law after the Parliamentarians had paid themselves from the Ghc 100,000 loot.

Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee at the time, James Klutse Avedzi, confessed to taking the money. He said the NLA initially brought Ghc 50,000, which they realised was not enough so they asked for Ghc 50,000 more.

Isn’t that wonderful?

The Today newspaper reports…

Former Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, has admitted his committee received money from officials of the National Lottery Authority before deliberating on the amendment of the National Lottery Act, 2006 (Act 722).

He said the Authority first presented GHC 50,000 to the Committee “but when we looked at the provisions, we realised that the amount was not sufficient so they promised to bring another GHC 50,000.”

Legal Advisor to the NLA, David Lamptey in separate e-mails addressed to the then Director-General of the NLA, Brigadier General Martin Ahiaglo (Retired) in August 2016 which have been intercepted by Joy FM, requested the approval of a total sum of 150,000 presumably to “push the bill for the consideration” by parliamentarians.

According to Mr. Lamptey, the money was spent on accommodation and other resources when the NLA organised a workshop on amendments to the new lottery bill at the Royal Senchi Hotel before it was passed into law.

“We had to pay for the members of parliament to be accommodated,” Mr. Lamptey said on Joy FM in an interview yesterday, June 28, 2017.

He however denied the move was an attempt on the part of the NLA to bribe members of the Committee to hurry the bill through the legislature.

But Chairman of the Finance Committee at the time, James Klutse Avedzi confessed having taken the money from the NLA, nevertheless he said, they received only a GHC100,000 from the NLA.

He said the money was given to the committee members as per diem/sitting allowance contradicting the claim by the NLA that it was used to pay for accommodation for the MPs.

The decision to receive the cash has also raised questions about the propriety of Parliament receiving money for work, for which the MPs already draw salaries from the state.

It would be recalled that, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban in 2014 accused Members of Parliament (MPs) of taking bribes at a two-day seminar in Koforidua organised by the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund.

Mr. Bagbin was reported to have said: “The reality is that MPs are Ghanaians and there is evidence that some MPs take bribes and come to the floor and try to articulate the views of their sponsors”.

Meanwhile when Today contacted Head of Public Affairs at Parliament, Kate Addo over the issue, she said, “parliamentarians are not supposed to take money from any institution to facilitate the passage of a law”..