Even though the Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta is not the only person in charge of the economy, he is the head of the team at the Finance Ministry hence, the decision to position him for blame over the economic challenges facing the country, Member of Parliament for Sene East, Dominic Napare, has said.
Mr Napare indicated that the economic management including budget preparations, is the function of the entire team.
Ordinarily, he said, the entire team should be held liable for the pitfalls but Mr Ofori-Atta has been singled out because he presents the budget to Parliament.
Mr Ofori-Atta is expected to present the 2023 budget statement in Parliament on Thursday November 24.
But speaking in an exclusive interview with TV3’s Evelyne Tengmaa in Parliament on Tuesday November 22, Mr Napare said “The Minister of Finance has nothing to offer. If you remember, in the previous two or three budgets he read, we indicated that it was not going to end anywhere and we have been proven right because things are getting worst over the day,” he said.
He added “Very characteristic of him, he doesn’t paint the true records of the economy of the country and so we keep complaining about the figures he presents. The state of the economy appears as if the economy is good meanwhile the economy is bad. This is what he has been doing and we think this is what he is coming to do.
“We don’t expect anything new from him and our position has been buttressed by the Majority side who are also saying that they don’t have any confidence in him.
“Even though we said it is Ken Ofori-Atta, it is not only him because it is not an individual who prepares the budget, it is a team, so it is the entire team that we don’t have confidence in.
“Because [Ofori-Atta] is leading, he is the one who takes the decision, he is the head of the team that is why we are singling him out for responsibility.”
Mr Ofori-Atta is expected to present the budget statement in Parliament on Thursday November 24.
He has been embroiled in controversies recently leading to the motion of vote of censure filed by the Minority against him.
He appeared before the 8-member committee set by the Speaker to respond to all allegations made against him by the Minority.
The accusations are “Despicable conflict of Interest ensuring that he directly benefits from Ghana’s economic woes as his companies receive commissions and other unethical contractual advantage.
Unconstitutional withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund in blatant contravention of Article 178 of the 1992 Constitution supposedly for the construction of the President’s Cathedral;
Deliberate and dishonest misreporting of economic data to Parliament Fiscal recklessness leading to the crash of the Ghana Cedi which is currently the worst performing currency in the world;
Alarming incompetence and frightening ineptitude resulting in the collapse of the Ghanaian economy and on excruciating cost of living crisis; Gross mismanagement of the economy which has occasioned untold and unprecedented hardship.
Mr Ofori-Atta refuted all these allegations when he appeared before the 8-member committee that was investigating him.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana
