A parliamentary investigation into the Ghc60 billion Bank of Ghana (BoG) loss will be pushed for by the minority.
Dr. Clement Apaak, the MP for Builsa South, stated that the minority is committed to seeing that an investigation is conducted into the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) enormous loss, which was brought on by the bank’s reluctance to follow the Bank of Ghana Act.
“The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government colluded with the Bank of Ghana to breach the Act, and for doing so, it must be held accountable on behalf of the people, the leader of the NDC in Parliament made clear in a tweet.
“The Bank of Ghana is a financial institution owned and operated by Ghanaians. Consequently, the money lost as a result of the decision to succumb to the illegal pressure from the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia governments to print money illicitly to finance an increased government expenditure rather than adhering to the act and thereby seeking parliamentary approval cannot be excused.
“Likewise, Ghanaians have no right to accept the government’s claim that it will cancel the debt it owes the Bank of Ghana.”
The Akufo-Addo and Bawumia NPP government colluded with the Bank of Ghana to breach the Bank of Ghana Act, according to Dr. Ato Forson, the head of the NDC in Parliament, and they must be held accountable on behalf of the people.
“The question that BOG must respond to is this: If during the Bank of Ghana’s consecutive years of profitability under the NDC/Mahama government (2012-2016), the bank’s managers did not view the construction of a new office complex as an urgent priority but instead chose to invest in the building of the BOG hospital to support the nation’s healthcare needs, how can BOG prioritize the construction of a new $250 million office complex at a time when it has recorded an unprecedented loss of GHS60.8 billion?
“It is instructive to note, that the cost of the ill-timed new head office complex the BOG is rapidly putting up is four times the cost of the ultramodern Ecobank Head Office building and six times the cost of Kempinski hotel in Accra,” Mr. Ato Forson stated.
He continued “In fact, our conservative estimates show that the cost of the new head office complex the BOG is putting up can build at least, 3,750 new six (6)-unit classroom blocks to expand access to education or at least 3,500 CHP compounds to improve the access to health care delivery in the country.
“We wish to state unequivocally for the records, that at no point has the Finance Minister presented a report to Parliament informing the house of the attainment of the 5% borrowing threshold or the setting of a new limit of government borrowing as required by section 30 of the Bank of Ghana Act. Nor has the Finance Minister sought the approval of Parliament for BOG to write-off any public funds, as required by section 53 of Public Financial Management Act 2016 (Act, 918).”
