Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has stated the motion to remove him from office by the Minority in Parliament has no substance and should be thrown out.
He described the motion as weightless which does not warrant censure since the allegations preferred against him were all false.
Mr. Ofori-Atta rubbished the motion when he appeared before the ad hoc committee hearing the censure motion on Friday November 18, 2022.
He said that the proponents’ allegations do not have “weight for censure.”
Debunking each of the allegations, the Finance Minister pointed out that it is complete false the allegation of deliberate misreporting of economic data to Parliament.
According to him, he has since assumption of office by this government in 2017, complied with the reporting provisions in the Public Financial Management Act 2016 (Act 921), including Budget Implementation report, Fiscal Reports, Public Debt Report, Petroleum Revenue Management Reports, ESLA report, etc.
Touching on the financial clean up, he said the sector clean up cost and the energy sector IPP payments in the deficit have been clearly spelt out, contrary to the position of others.
He said “Since I took office in 2017, I have served the country with integrity and honesty.
“Under my leadership at the Ministry of Finance, there have been significant improvements in the accurate reporting of public finances.
“Today, under President Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghanaians are enjoying greater accountability and transparency in the management of the public purse than any other period under the Fourth Republic.
“I want to emphasize, with the Budget document as evidence, that these payments were reflected in the fiscal framework.”
He further said “Energy sector IPP payments were treated as “amortisation” and the non-cash financial sector clean-up payments were reflected in the “memo item” (Refer to Appendix 2A of the Fiscal Tables in the relevant Annual Budget),” the minister said.
Already, Dr Albert Touna Mama, the former Country Dircetor of the IMF rubbished the claim on Joy FM’s News File Programme.
He said there was no misrepresentation of data by the government as was being alleged.
Dr Touna Mama said government was not the one that presented the figures that the IMF published in its statements, stating that the difference in figures was as a result of a difference in the methodology of calculation, adding that the figure in fiscal deficit in their statement was a figure they generated themselves from the data government presented to them, having added financial and energy sector payments in line with their methodology, which is different from government’s methodology.
