Dr. John Ampontuah Kumah
THE MINISTRY of Finance has refuted the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s false claim that it has prevailed on the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to print GH¢22 billion to finance its deficit.
Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr. John Ampontuah Kumah, said the allegation made by the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, is not only false, but also baseless.
The NDC MP for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam on Monday accused the government of encouraging the BoG to print “GH¢22 billion fresh money without the knowledge of Parliament,” and tagged it as an illegality.
Contributing to the statement on the 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review, Dr. Ato Forson repeated the allegation and said the government chose to hide the information on the page 97 of Appendix 2A of the Mid-Year Budget document presented by the Finance Ministry.
Rebuttal
But in a quick response, the Deputy Finance Minister said the NDC MP told a lie when he stated that the government had prevailed on the BoG to print GH¢22 billion.
“Mr. Speaker, the speaker (referring to Ato) who spoke before me said the Finance Minister came here in English and did not speak economics. And the economics I heard this morning from him is that if BoG grants overdraft or forward-lends, an IMF FDI facility of GH¢4.5 billion and gives a net drawdown deposit of GH¢6.1 billion plus overdraft of GH¢11.4 billion which constitute the GH¢22 billion, the economics he understands is that Bank of Ghana has printed money.
“This is the worst economics I have ever heard. If this is the economics we are being taught this morning from the NDC and our brothers in opposition, then it is very far from this country,” Dr. Kumah, who is also the NPP MP for Ejisu, stated.
“And yesterday (Monday), he referred to page 97 of the Mid-Year Budget fiscal review and made some baseless claims that the Bank of Ghana has printed GH¢22 billion,” he asserted.
He later told the media that “there is no foundation to that claim and we want Ghanaians to treat that with a pinch of salt. He accused the Minister of Finance that he had hidden the information on page 97 in Appendix 2A of the mid-year budget.”
“This document is a public document. It is given out there for everybody to read. So how did he pick this document and read page 97 and said that the information there has been hidden. What is the meaning of that?” the Deputy Minister asked rhetorically.
“We gave you a document; the Finance Minister gave you this document and you went to page 97 and you found out that there is information about the Bank of Ghana and GH¢22 billion. And your position is that it is hidden.
“Please, it shows you clearly that the NDC’s problem is their dislike for reading. They think that they don’t have to read to know the content of this document. So, if they read and find information in what we have given them, then it means we have hidden it. How do you explain that?
“It is never true that we have hidden any information. There is no basis for any hiding of information. And nobody should impugn the integrity of the Finance Ministry or the Finance Minister of this government for information we have given out to the public,” he refuted.
He continued, “It is his responsibility and every Ghanaian’s responsibility to read and understand the content. If you read and find information there, please we have not hidden it from you. We have provided it for you and I just want us to be on the same homepage.”
He explained that Section 30 of the Bank of Ghana Act also allows BoG to operate on overdraft basis, and that it is within the laws of the country, adding, “On the Bank of Ghana’s balance sheet, they can give overdraft to government as a loan which can be paid within a specified period.”
He noted that this is not the first time any government has done that, pointing out to his colleague, “When he was a Deputy Minister, the Bank of Ghana supported the Ministry of Finance and the government on the same arrangement within the Act.”
“What has changed is that today we are told by the new economics from NDC that when BoG gives overdraft to the Government of Ghana, it is called printing of money. I am surprised. This is not economics and they have to come again,” he intimated.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House