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The Office of the Speaker of Parliament has debunked assertions that the Speaker travelled to Dubai with his children.
According to the office Speaker Alban Bagbin has never travelled with his children on such trips.
A March 7, statement issued by the office read as follows:
“We want to place the following on record: The Rt. Hon. Speaker did not travel to Dubai with his children as is being alleged. Indeed, Mr. Speaker has never included his children in any of his trips.
“Travel expenses for Mr. Speaker’s trip to Dubai is in accordance with what is prescribed for the Speaker of Parliament long before Rt. Hon Bagbin became Speaker, and also for analogous members of government such as the President, Vice President and the Chief Justice,” it stated.
The statement noted further that figures quoted in some publications as per diem are false since the Speaker has no hand in the computation of his per diem, which is available as part of the official records of the State.
In clarifying issues the Speaker’s office revealed that Mr. Bagbin “traveled with the medical doctor in charge of Parliament Medical Centre. his spouse as career and two other officials of Parliament as the least in practice. There is no advance party. no children , and certainly no other member on his entourage. What is intriguing is the focus on Mr. Speaker’s travel and the efforts at exaggerating the cost.”
While advising the public to ignore such false claims which they described as “political mischief”, the Speaker’s office questioned why focus has been on the Speaker’s travels.
“Meanwhile, there is complete silence on the travels of other members of government, the frequency of which is far higher than that of Mr. Speaker. Even within the hierarchy of Parliament, there are members of the leadership whose frequency of travel is far higher than that of Mr. Speaker.”
