The claims presented by the Minority in Parliament to remove the Finance Minister from office, according to Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, lack any merit.
He stated, “The allegations do not have weight for censure,” before the ad hoc committee considering the censure motion on Friday, November 18.
Mr Ofori-Atta asserted that all the accusations made against him were untrue and went on to refute each one.
Regarding the claim that economic data was intentionally misreported to Parliament, he asserted that it is wholly untrue.
“Since I took office in 2017, I have served the country with integrity and honesty.
“Under my leadership at the Ministry of Finance, there have been significant improvements in the accurate reporting of public finances.
“Today, under President Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghanaians are enjoying greater accountability and transparency in the management of the public purse than any other period under the Fourth Republic.”
According to him, the government has complied with the Public Financial Management Act 2016 (Act 921)’s reporting requirements since 2017, including the Budget Implementation Report, Fiscal Reports, Public Debt Report, Petroleum Revenue Management Reports, ESLA Report, etc.
Contrary to others’ assertions, the finance minister noted that the clean-up costs for the banking sector and the IPP payments for the energy sector were explicitly specified.
“I want to emphasize, with the Budget document as evidence, that these payments were reflected in the fiscal framework.”
“Energy sector IPP payments were treated as “amortisation” and the non-cash financial sector clean-up payments were reflected in the “memo item” (Refer to Appendix 2A of the Fiscal Tables in the relevant Annual Budget),” the minister said.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Joseph Asare
