The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi Constituency in the Western Region, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, has accused the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmakers of rehashing old and discredited allegations against Minister for Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta.
According to him, the allegations of misreporting data were first raised in May 2020 but was rejected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as being untrue.
Mr. Mercer is therefore at a loss as to why the Minority NDC will use the same issues as bases for a motion of censure against Mr Ofori-Atta.
The Sekondi lawmaker who is a member of an 8-member Ad-Hoc Committee hearing a motion of censure brought against the Finance Minister, responded to a presentation by Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, which centred on misreporting of the fiscal deficit, fiscal treatment of expenditures above or below the line and general public sector accounting.
He pointed out that the immediate past Country Representative of the IMF, Dr Albert Touna Mama, debunked the allegations in May 2020.
The IMF Country Representative, Mr. Mercer recalled, confirmed all the figures were known by the IMF and therefore it was untrue that there was misreporting.
Finance Minister’s appearance
The Minister for Ken Ofori-Atta yesterday appeared before the Ad-Hoc Committee investigating issues relating to the Vote of Censure motion.
He demanded documentary evidence of the charges made against him by the Minority.
Led by his Lawyer, Mr. Gabby-Asare Otchere-Darko, the Finance Minister demanded to be furnished with the particulars of each charge that have been raised in the attempt to oust him from office.
He presented a letter requesting for these particulars before the Committee commenced sitting.
Mr. Asare Otchere-Darko who spoke on behalf of the Minister argued that in the interest of justice and fairness, the particulars of facts in support of each charge needs to be provided.
He argued Mr. Ofori-Atta risks a heavy punishment of losing his office and therefore should be given a fair chance of defending himself.
However, Mr. Dominic Ayine, one of the co-chairs pointed out that all the documents that have been listed by the proponents of the Motion are public documents authored under the authority and in the custody of the Finance Minister himself.
Mr. Otchere-Darko, however, argued some of the documents being relied on by the proponents of the Motion are voluminous and will take time for the Minister and his counsel to go through to get the relevant particulars.
“That is why we demand that the charges be complete with the particulars, that is all I’m asking,” he stated.
IMF compelled to clarify
Mr. Mercer said “as much as possible to stay out of debates” they felt compelled to clarify statements made by Fact Check Ghana, an affiliate of the Media Foundation for West Africa concerning the $1 billion IMF COVID-19 relief fund to the government.
Fact Check Ghana, published on its website that government presented data to the IMF which was different from figures in the annual budgets for 2018 and 2019.
But, Dr. Albert Touna Mama in a media interview stated that Fact Check Ghana misrepresented the facts because the government was not the one that presented the figures that the IMF published in its statements as Fact Check Ghana reported.
Difference in methodology
The IMF Country Director explained that the difference in figures was as a result of a difference in the methodology of calculation, adding that the figure in fiscal deficit in their statement was a figure they generated themselves from the data government presented to them, having added financial and energy sector payments in line with their methodology, which is different from government’s methodology.
