Bong County Senator Prince K. Moyee has categorically denied claims in the corridor of the 55th Legislature linking him to sponsoring Speaker Jonathan FonatiKoffa’s removal to prevent that august body from being audited.
Addressing a news press conference Monday, October 21, 2024, at the Capitol Building, Senator Moyee said he is not afraid of audit because his role in the House of Representatives as Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Committee on Ways, Means and Finance was transparently implemented.
Moye said some lawmakers from the House are accusing him of sponsoring Speaker Koffa’s removal because he (Senator Moyee) does not want to be audited for the period he served as Chairman on Ways, Means and Finance and deputy speaker respectively.
“I want to category denied the claims repeatedly being made by some folks from the House of Representatives that we are afraid of audit of the House because we served there before in leadership position and that is why we want to see the Speaker being removed. I do not want to give credence to it, but something that is repeatedly being said in society has to be addressed. I don’t have anything to do with the removal of Speaker Koffa because my service at the House was transparent,” Senator Moyee clarified.
According to him, he became the Ways and Means Chair in the House of Representatives in September 2016 and resigned in December 2017, when his tenure ended.
He noted that it was not possible under his chairmanship that former Finance Minister BoimahKamara, a man of high integrity, would have sent money that was not budgeted to the legislature.
Senator Moyee also said they straightly executed what the legislature budgeted and signed into law.
However, he revealed that after he left the committee and got elected as Deputy Speaker in 2018, he ran his office with nothing more than one million United States Dollars.
“I ran that office on a budget under One Million United States Dollars. The Deputy Speaker’s budget did not exceed one million dollars under my watch as deputy for my three years of service. The last year, 2020 budget, it was four hundred thousand. I am saying it. Go on the Ministry of Finance’s Website and check it. I challenge anybody in this country that, as a Deputy Speaker in the opposition, my budget did not exceed a million. So, I am not afraid of any audit,”, Moyee noted.
He further indicated that when he won and became Senator in 2021, it is when the Deputy Speaker J. Fonita Koffa budget begun to climb over one million and with an outturn of over four million after an allotment of one million in 2023.
Moye said these are some of the real issues that should lead to an audit of the House.
“We have taken the initiative at the Senate to do an audit, so you be man enough to do same, than to be scapegoating people here. What stopped the GAC from auditing since February, I know somebody saw their physical outturn of 2023 in their budget book with US$ 4 million , that is not in hidden, so they got afraid because there is no justification or how did you manage for this money to pass through your account?” He asked.
The Bong County Senator at the same time urged those pointing accusing fingers at him to rather focus on the real issues raised in the resolution of their colleagues so as to address those concerns instead of blaming others.
Moyee said the law provides that every financing agreement should originate from the House of Representatives, and many financial instruments have originated from the House of Representatives that they passed.
“There has never been an instance where the House had worked on a financial instrument and passed it to us for concurrence, but we refused. We have not had any history of financial instruments gotten stock here as a result of the House not waiting to pass it, and I’m afraid that two or three budgets our government can’t get a budget, then I’m fighting to remove Speaker Koffa. I am saying this to establish what is the real motive of wanting to remove the Speaker.”