You can’t escape blame for mess created at BoG – Ato Forson to Addison

The Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has said the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison and his deputies will not escape liability for mess created at the bank.

In a statement ahead of the Minority’s #OccupyBoG demonstration, Dr. Ato Forson the Governor and his deputies are responsible for the current mess of the bank.

“The actions of Governor Addison and his two deputies to illegally and excessively print money to finance government’s over-bloated expenditures and reckless borrowing from the Minister of Finance.

“All of these were under the direct supervision of Alhaji Bawumia, the Chairman of the economic mismanagement team,” Mr. Forson stated.

He continued: “They are responsible for causing this mess and cannot escape culpability in this matter. Let me also state that another cardinal sin of the Governor of the Central Bank and his deputies is their decision to write off government debt on the blind side of parliament.”

Below is portions of the statement from the Minority leaders

• The Governor and his deputies are not a law unto themselves, they cannot exercise powers that they do not have. They cannot therefore arrogate to themselves the power to unilaterally write off government debt without recourse to the Parliament of Ghana, in clear violation of section 53 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
• The Bank of Ghana is regulated by law and those of us in the Minority Caucus will continue to ensure that they follow and operate within the law.
• Already, the Bank of Ghana and the government have written off about GHS 48.4 billion of government debt, owed to the Bank of Ghana without parliamentary approval and Section 96 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) which spells out the offences and penalties will have to apply.
• On the watch of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Alhaji Bawunia, the government has succeeded in collapsing almost all state-owned enterprises, including the Bank of Ghana which is now bankrupt with negative equity of over GHS55 billion and counting.
• Why should Ghanaians be worried about the mess that this Government has created at the Bank of Ghana? • All of us should be worried because ultimately the Ghanaian Tax-Payer would be required to recapitalize the Bank of Ghana.
• Considering that average profits made by Bank of Ghana since 2012 is about GHS1.5 billion and assuming that all profits will be retained going forward, it will take more than 20 years for Bank of Ghana to move to positive equity.
• This means the fate of Bank of Ghana hangs solely in the ability of a government that is itself bankrupt to recapitalize it.
• Ladies and Gentlemen, from the Minority’s analyses of this mess, there can only be three (3) options to get the Bank of Ghana out of this self-inflicted predicament: i. Introduce a tax to recapitalize the Bank of Ghana. (Bank of Ghana recapitalization Levy); or ii. ii. Divert proceeds of an existing Tax to recapitalize the Bank of Ghana and therefore forgo critical Government expenditures in education, health and roads; or iii. iii. This Government which has borrowed more than all Governments combined in the history of Ghana, may have to borrow another $6 billion to fill this crater at the Bank of Ghana.

Source: Today.com.gh