News:
February 12, 2021
Finance Minister-designate Ken Ofori-Atta is expected to be vetted today by the Appointment Committee of Ghana’s Parliament.
A group known as, the Dynamic Youth Movement of Ghana (DYMOG) has petitioned the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon Alban Bagbin, against the former Finance Minister’s re-appointment.
The petition, signed by the Executive Convener of DYMOG, Edward Tuttor, on February 6, 2021, was hinged on grounds that “Ken Ofori-Atta, while being the Minister responsible for finance in the preceding Government, was found by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to have occupied a private office of emolument, being the office of a director in Ventures and Acquisition Limited (a private company)”.
According to the petition, Ken Ofori-Atta occupied the private office “without the due permission of the then-Right Honorable Speaker of Parliament”.
The petition also noted that Ofori-Atta was found by CHRAJ “to have superintended the issuance of 95% of government of Ghana sovereign bonds to a company (Franklin Templeton Investment Ltd) in which his business and close relation by name Trevor Trefgarne was a director, without making the said bond transaction open to the investor-public for competitive bidding”.
The group also mentioned in the petition, the Finance Minister-designate’s failure and refusal “to declare his shareholding in Data Bank Financial Services Limited, Data Bank Brokerage Limited, and Data Bank Financial Holdings Limited, to the Auditor-General before taking office” in the immediate past government, contrary to Article 286(1)(a) of the 1992 Constitution.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com