The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchway has suspended the planned purchase of a property in Oslo, Norway for the purposes of establishing a mission there.

It follows claims that the price of the 100-year-old property had been inflated.

The Minority in Parliament on Monday accused Mrs Ayorkor Botchway of
supervising over a grand scheme to loot the country’s meager resources
in the pricing of the property.

The property, according to the Minority Spokesperson on Foreign
Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is “outrageously” priced at $12.1
million instead of $3.5million.

He said their investigation uncovered that $16.5million presented to
the foreign affairs committee of parliament as the budget for the new
mission in Oslo, the Chancery and the Ambassador’s residence is
“outrageously high.”

“It is outlandishly inflated,” he said during approval of budget
estimate for the ministry, noting that the property in 2014 was bought
$2.9million and resold at $3.5million.

In her response however, after a heated verbal melee with the
Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs Mrs Botchway divulged that the
purchase of the property had been halted.

She said she halted the purchase of the property last week Wednesday
when news of the property price being inflated hit the Norwegian
Newsstands. “No money has exchanged hands. We don’t have a contract that
will bind us to the purchase of that property and it is on hold and I
have instructed and directed that we look for other properties.”

Taking note of the issues raised by the Minority, She said she took
responsibility for everything that’s done in the Ministry under her
watch, assuring: “I’ll not superintend over any act of corruption or
wrong doing or outrageous inflation of figures or fraudulent activities
that would end in the loss of funds to the Ministry and by extension to
the state.

“Mr speaker let me say that concerning the Oslo property as per the
normal practice at the Ministry, when a new mission is  to be opened the
first thing which is done is to send officers to that country.”

Source: ultimatefmonline.com