Finance Minister appears before Parliament today over $2.2bn
The Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Attah will meet Members of
Parliament on Wednesday over the $2.25 billion bond issue, reports
Graphic Business’ Emmanuel Bruce from Parliament House.
The meeting will be in line with an earlier Order by the Speaker of
Parliament, following a request by the Minority for the Minister to
appear and respond to their concerns on the loans, raised from the sale
of two bonds and a tap in into two others.
The motion was filed by the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, with a
request for the full complement of documentation related to the
issuance, the participants, the utilization of proceeds and the currency
in which the bond was settled.
Mr Iddrisu, while speaking on the floor of Parliament last week said,
because the House approved the Appropriation Bill, any government
expenditure in relation to that must come to Parliament.
“Mr Speaker, the Public financial management Act and Article 181 of
the constitution naturally would have enjoined the Minister of Finance
to have demonstrated respect to the House by submitting same for the
House’s scrutiny and approval. That has not happened. But we have
official statements to the effect that GHc9.7 billion of $2.25 billion
has been released. We passed the appropriate Act; [hence] any other
expenditure pursuant to it must have the attention of this august
house,” he added.
Concerns were raised about the transparency of the $2.25 billion
domestic bond government issued, with some noting that the apparent
secrecy over the deal fueled the allegations of conflict of interest
against the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori Atta.
The Minority in its conflict of interest allegations, said a
non-executive director on the board of Investment Firm, Franklin
Templeton, who purchased 95 percent of the $2.25 billion bond, is also
the Chairman of the Enterprise Group, which has links to the
Attorney-General and the Finance Minister.
The Minority eventually called for a full-scale parliamentary probe into the bond issue.
A member of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Brogya Genfi
has also petitioned CHRAJ to look into complaints of conflict of
interest.
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