Facilitating my work is not bribery – Joe-Wise defends parliamentary funding

Joseph Osei-Owusu, also known as Joe-Wise, has strongly dismissed claims that financial facilitation for parliamentary work amounts to bribery.

The Bekwai MP and experienced lawyer explained the realities of budget disbursement in Ghana’s Parliament, stating that delays often force leadership to seek alternative ways to fund committee work in an interview on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show monitored by MyNewsGh.

“It is true Parliament has a budget that is supposed to cater for committee sittings and so on, but in 2009 when I joined Parliament, often there were no releases,” he said. “You would sit through and do your work, and the releases would not come. The committee allowances would not come.”

Joe-Wise clarified that in cases where Parliament failed to release funds on time, leadership sometimes had to engage with the executive to secure the necessary financing.

“The Chief of Staff will undertake to release money—money that ought to have been paid by Parliament but has not been paid will then come through the Clerk of Parliament to the committee,” he explained.

He rejected the notion that such facilitation was corrupt, arguing that it was merely a means to ensure the work of Parliament continued uninterrupted.

“To suggest that this is bribery is to say the person doesn’t understand how public service works,” he stated firmly.

“Bribery must give somebody an advantage or put another at a disadvantage, but facilitating my work because the financial release that ought to have come to my institution hasn’t arrived is not bribery.”

Joe-Wise also pointed out that financial constraints were common in public service and stressed that Parliament had, on multiple occasions, held the Finance Minister accountable for delayed budget allocations.

“Often, when our budget is not released, we hold the Finance Minister to ransom. When he has critical work to be done, we will stall it unless he releases our budget allocation,” he admitted.

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