Some legislators were on Friday caught in heated exchanges with Agric Minister Bryan Acheampong at the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) head office.
Members of the Minority leadership had visited the facility to assess developments following a sustained protest by some aggrieved food suppliers who have besieged the offices of the company over non-payment for supplies to schools.
The members comprised Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson, his deputy Armah Kofi Buah, North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Juaboso MP Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, and Felix Ofosu Kwakye, politician and former Deputy Information Minister under the NDC in the John Dramani Mahama Administration, among others.
While the caucus sought answers from a representative of NAFCO in the company of the Parliamentary press corps, Agriculture Minister Bryan Acheampong walked in.
Mr Acheampong asked Cassiel Ato Forson; “You are a former Deputy Finance Minister. What do you know about these payments?”
He further accused the Minority of fueling what he described as inorganic picketing.
“This inorganic picketing, should not be accepted and encouraged,” he told the team.
But the NDC legislators would have none of that. This culminated in heated exchanges between Mr Acheampong and the rest of the MPs.
An unenthused Mintah Akandoh retorted; “Are you angry because we are finding solutions to the challenges? If you could have solved it [challenges] we wouldn’t have been here.”
“You should be the last person to get angry,” Akandoh added.
Meanwhile, the National Food Suppliers Association says it cannot trust any negotiation process by the National Food Buffer Stock Company to resolve its debt issue.
The group has been picketing the premises of the buffer stock company for the past 72 hours, demanding payment of about GHȼ270 million cedis owed them.
The National Buffer Stock Company in a statement on Thursday said it was scheduling an emergency meeting to agree on a payment plan.
But the food suppliers say they won’t buy into the plan because all such previous arrangements fell through.
The suppliers have spent a few nights at the premises of the company to press home their demands for the payments for supplies they made between 2021 and 2022.
The Minority MPs had early on in Parliament demanded the summoning of the Ministers for Agric, Finance and Education to answer questions about the indebtedness to the suppliers.
As a result, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has directed the Ministers of Education, Finance and Agric to appear before Parliament next week.
According to the Speaker, the three ministers must explain to Parliament what their challenges are in ensuring the suppliers are paid.
He said when the challenges are known, the House could assist them to resolve same.
“So I agree that the business committee should programme for the three ministers to come before the house. The three ministers are the Finance, Food and Agriculture and Education to tell us what the challenge is.”
“We will be able to assist the executive to solve these matters. That is why we have established the committee for ways and means.”
Source: myjoyonline.com
