News:
May 15, 2016
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Obuasi West Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Kwaku Kwarteng has taken a swipe at the government for transferring some Eurobond money to a private bank.
According to him, this decision by the government can be put in the same category as the kickbacks received by public officials in the country.
The transfer of some 250 million dollars from the 2014 Eurobond proceeds by the government came to public notice after the Vice-Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia disclosed this when he addressed some students of the Accra Polytechnic on May 5.
Dr. Bawumia argued the transfer of the money from the Bank of Ghana account to the private bank amounts to a mismanagement of government funds.
He said the decision does not make economic sense because the government will pay more on interest than expected.
But the government disagreed with Dr. Bawumia’s arguments saying the decision it took has helped the country to earn some 23 million dollars.
Finance Minister, Seth Terkper said the money would not have attracted the interest earned if it had been left in the Bank of Ghana account.
Speaking on the Joy FM and MultiTV’s news analysis programme, NEWSFILE, Mr. Kwarteng said nonetheless, the transfer was not a clever way of earning money for the government.
Illegalities:
Commenting on some of the illegalities with the transaction, the NPP MP said: “If the government wants to engage in a foreign exchange transaction, it ought to be done by the Bank of Ghana”.
He argued the Bank of Ghana Act 2002 (Act 612) section 53 mandates the Central bank to hold all foreign exchange of the State but this role was mortgaged by the government.
This is a clear violation of the law, he added.
He cautioned the country stands to incur some judgment debts if care is not taken in arriving at such decision.
However, parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for Bolga Central Constituency, Isaac Adongo saw no wrong in the transaction.
According to him, this is “legal and legitimate” because the interest of the nation was taken into consideration.
Story by Ghanamps.com