Former Adansi Asokwa MP, Kobina Tahir Hammond, has rejected allegations linking members of Parliament’s Energy Committee to a purported $46,000 bribe allegedly paid to facilitate the ratification of an agreement between the Government of Ghana and Aksa Energy in 2014 and 2015.
Hammond was the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Energy Committee during the period when proceedings in a United States court indicated that Kwaku Asante Berko and his associates had discussed paying bribes to Ghanaian officials, including parliamentarians.
Hammond was responding to questions during an interview on Accra-based Citi FM on Monday, August 10, 2026, after his law firm, Cavendish Chambers, issued a statement on behalf of its client, former Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor, denying any involvement in the alleged “holy rain” bribery scheme.
The lawyers confirmed that Dr Donkor was the relevant minister at the time and that his Ministry of Power negotiated with Aksa Energy for electricity generation during Ghana’s power crisis, popularly known as “Dumsor”.
The statement also explained that a technical team comprising power-sector stakeholders was sent to Istanbul, Turkey, for a pre-shipment inspection of equipment, describing the exercise as standard practice.
Dr Donkor, however, maintained that he had never met Asante Berko during the negotiations or at any point in his life.
He also stated that he had never discussed any personal benefit with Berko or anyone else, never authorised anyone to negotiate such matters on his behalf, and never received money or any personal benefit from Berko or any other person.
Dr Donkor further said anyone who may have made criminal demands in his name did so for their own benefit.
He also rejected the suggestion that evidence presented during the US trial personally linked him to demands for or receipt of money or valuables. According to him, claims by others concerning payments to a “Senior Ghana Official” did not constitute evidence of wrongdoing on his part.
Last week, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced the conviction of Kwaku Asante Berko, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker who also served as Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
According to the US authorities, Berko and his associates paid more than $1 million in bribes connected to the development of a power plant in Ghana.
Court proceedings also touched on August 2015 discussions involving $250,000 in alleged bribe payments to various individuals, including $46,000 to members of the Ghanaian Parliament who ratified the agreement between Aksa Energy and the Government of Ghana.
The proceedings further indicated that the $46,000 was allegedly paid by Berko himself.
In another discussion in August 2015, the co-conspirators reportedly referred to a bribe recipient who was waiting for the “holy rain”, a term they used for the alleged bribe payment, and who “would appreciate it sooner rather than later.”
Hammond, however, rejected any suggestion that he or members of his committee received money from Berko.
He argued that evidence showing that Berko and his associates discussed paying bribes did not, by itself, prove that the intended recipients actually received the money.
He described as “the most repugnant aspect of it” the suggestion that he and 17 other members of the parliamentary committee shared the alleged $46,000.
Hammond questioned how 18 MPs, together with secretariat staff, could have shared the amount, particularly when the alleged payment had been broken down into different figures.
“For the sake of all that is making the rounds, people are taking one million…, and then the suggestion is that K.T. Hammond, and his [committee] we took about, $500 [each], because the money is supposed to be $30,000. Then you hear $10,000 somewhere, then some $6,000; they round it up to $46,000,” he said.
He continued:
“We had 18 people in Parliament (Members on the Energy Committee), and then the Secretariat and all of that; are they suggesting we shared that and each person got about $500 or $1000 or something?”
“Is K.T, Hammond that bloody cheap? Is that it?” he questioned.
Hammond further insisted that the committee had no knowledge of any alleged bribery and explained the constitutional role of Parliament in scrutinising agreements brought before it.
“Oh, uh, don’t ask me any more questions on that because you upset me. I have absolutely told you that my committee had absolutely no knowledge about that. We do know that the document came to Parliament for ratification. What we do in Parliament is not a sale of documentation or not a sale of any business. Our mandated duty is to scrutinise documents and make sure that… think about it, we are only 28. We get 48, we only scrutinise and eventually take the document to the plenary of over 270 whatever people, 75, 76, so we take $46,000 for 30 something, and then what happens to the rest of the plenary, I mean, does this make sense?”
