Speaker Alban Bagbin has referred Parliament’s internal review of the 2015 AKSA Energy contract to Ghana’s Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), after the inquiry found no evidence that MPs or Parliamentary Service staff received a US$46,000 bribe.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, November 11, Mr Bagbin said an administrative investigation had found no record of payments to lawmakers or officials in connection with the approval of the emergency power agreement.
“Honourable Members, I have accordingly directed that the report of the Review, together with all supporting documentation, be formally transmitted to the Office of the Special Prosecutor and any other relevant investigative body to assist their investigations and any further enquiries necessary to establish the full facts,” he said.
The review was commissioned by Mr Bagbin in his capacity as chairman of the Parliamentary Service Board. It examined Hansard records, Votes and Proceedings, and documents held by the Mines and Energy Committee.
The panel also interviewed current and former Parliamentary Service staff, as well as a former chair of the committee.
Contract records preserved
Parliamentary records show that the emergency power agreement was presented to the House on June 23, 2015. The Mines and Energy Committee reported back on July 16, 2015, and MPs approved the deal the following day.
The Clerk of Parliament has been instructed to preserve all documents relating to the agreement to support the OSP’s continuing investigation into the AKSA matter.
Mr Bagbin stressed that the internal review neither cleared individuals of wrongdoing nor established that no illicit payments were made outside Parliament. The OSP had previously identified people of interest in the case.
He also noted that the review was administrative, rather than a criminal investigation. Its investigators therefore had no power to compel the production of documents, obtain bank records or require witnesses to give evidence under oath.
“These decisions rest on a simple conviction, and that conviction is an institution charged with holding others to account must itself meet the highest standards of transparency, integrity and accountability,” Mr Bagbin said.
The parliamentary scrutiny followed the conviction of Asante Kwaku Berko by a federal jury in Brooklyn on August 6, 2026. Mr Berko is a former Goldman Sachs investment banker and former head of the Tema Oil Refinery.
US prosecutors established that he arranged more than US$1 million in bribes between 2014 and 2015 to help Turkish company Aksa Enerji obtain the Ghanaian power plant contract.
Mr Berko was convicted of offences under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money laundering before US District Judge Diane Gujarati. He faces a maximum possible prison sentence of 30 years.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor assisted the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the case under mutual legal assistance arrangements.
