Return all items, board orders former Speaker

Page 3: Daily Graphic, May 27, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE former Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes, has been asked by the Parliamentary Service Board to return all items he took away from his official residence upon leaving office.
He was given one week to comply.
The directive from the Parliamentary Board followed a marathon meeting yesterday by the leadership to consider Mr Sekyi Hughes’ response to an earlier report by an ad-hoc committee of Parliament which asked him to explain his action.
In his response Mr Hughes had asked the Board to go and retrieve the items from his private residence.
In a letter issued by his solicitors, Zoe, Akyea & Co, and addressed to the secretary of the board, Mr Hughes said he was “no longer interested in the items he took away from the Speaker’s official residence, bona fide”.
According to the letter, the former Speaker did not want to feed the frenzy of those who believed that without scandalising others their own prominence would be diminished.
“Accordingly, for the sake of good governance, the integrity of the high office he previously occupied and in good conscience, our client states categorically that he is no longer interested in the items he took from the Speaker’s official residence, bona fide,” it said.
It, therefore, invited the board to “arrange for the collection of the items from his private residence in Accra, at your earliest convenience, on agreed time schedule”.
The letter, dated May 25, 2009, said the former Speaker was given a briefing relating to the provision of soft furnishings and other amenities and the disposal of same to the leadership and senior officers of Parliament.
“It is on record that some retiring and exiting leaders and officers of Parliament had in the past benefited from this practice,” it said.
According to the letter, armed with that information, the ex-Speaker took away some furnishings and other amenities in his official residence when he left the residence on February 26, 2009.
Unfortunately, it said, that claim of right had generated some furore, although attempts to clear the misinformation and set the records straight had failed.
“For some strange reasons, it appears that the misinformation has sunk rather very deep, to the extent that the hard-earned reputation of our client is being tarnished.
“It is regrettable that well-placed and responsible men in authority are even imputing criminality to him,” the letter noted.