The Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak is not convinced by answers provided by Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Finance of the Ghana Exim Bank over the GHS2 million allegedly paid to musician Shatta Wale and others.
At Wednesday’s sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Ras Mubarak alleged that the said amount had been paid to the artiste in his role as an ambassador for the bank.
In response, the deputy CEO, Kwame Adu Darkwa maintained that Exim bank did not directly make any payment to Shatta Wale and the other brand ambassadors.
But the Kumbungu MP in a Citi News interview, insisted that Mr. Adu Darkwa was not transparent with his answers.
“The answers were not satisfactory. There was no transparency in the manner in which they handled the issues of celebrities. We do not even know who the vendor is because the Deputy CEO admitted yesterday that they had outsourced the recruitment of the brand ambassadors to a vendor, but he is unable to tell the committee who the vendor is. I am interested in who that vendor is and whether indeed, the selection of that vendor went through procurement. I am yet to see one project that these ambassadors have undertaken. You don’t go and pay public funds to ambassadors when no work has been done,” he lamented.
At the sitting, the Committee questioned the alleged payment to Shatta Wale and other ambassadors after Ras Mubarak raised concerns over the said amount.
But, Kwame Adu-Darkwa said Exim Bank had contracted a media consultancy outfit to deal with the recruitment of the brand ambassadors.
He insisted that the artiste was not paid directly by the Exim Bank.
“You will be surprised how brand ambassadors can be good for promoting a particular sector. Sometimes what needs to be done is that if you have done incredible work, it will be good for people to know what their options are, and having a good brand ambassador to do that makes sense.”
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Committee, James Klutse Avedzi said his outfit will soon invite officials from the bank to provide details of the said payments to the dancehall artiste and other brand ambassadors.
