Following the whispering and murmurings going on amongst staff of the parliamentary service in Parliament about the frequent travels of the Clerk to Parliament, a concerned Ghanaian has fired a petition to the Speaker of Parliament, Right Honourable Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin.
Filed under the Right to Information Act 2019, Act 989, the staff of the Parliamentary Service, Kofi Boadu, is demanding answers to all the foreign travels of Cyril Kwabena Oteng Nsiah, Clerk to Parliament.
“We would appreciate if you could provide the following details: a comprehensive list of all foreign travels undertaken by the Clerk to Parliament from January 2021up to date, the purpose of each travel undertaken by the Clerk to Parliament,” lawyers for Kofi Boadu, Afrimore Advisors Pruc. requested in the letter dated, 11 June, 2024(published).
Kofi Boadu is also requesting information on the “Total expenses incurred by the Office of Parliament for each foreign travel undertaken by the Clerk to Parliament,” as well as the “Total expenses incurred by the Office of Parliament for all foreign travels undertaken by the Clerk to Parliament from 2021 up to date.”
Recall that the Clerk to Parliament has been accused by staff of the parliamentary service of junketing and allegedly taking fat per diems to the chagrin the staff, who have still not been paid their per diem, three months after attending a workshop at the AH hotel in Accra.
For instance, between January and now, some of the staff say Mr. Cyril Kwabena Oteng Nsiah has travelled more than eleven (15) times, and that just last 3 May, this year, he arrived from Uganda in the morning, around ten (10) am and returned to the USA in the evening.
“Since January the longest he has stayed in Ghana is two weeks. Workers have waited for three months yet their workshop per diem is not in,” a distraught staff told the Inquirer on condition of anonymity.
Many Parliamentary Staff, who spoke to this paper also said staff who desire for study leave abroad, even though get approval, do not get funds to travel and the habitual excuse has always been that there is no money in Parliament’s kitty.
More anon.
Source: Theinquirer