A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Hopeson Adorye, has charged the Ministry of Finance and its consultants who in his view benefitted from government bonds to take up the mantle of explaining to Ghanaians what the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) entails.
Hopeson Adorye claims that communicators of the governing party have been hanged out to dry by persons he believes enjoyed commissions from the bonds that have contributed to the country’s unsustainable debt levels.
The one-time parliamentary candidate of the party for the Kpone Katamanso constituency lamented on Peace FM that those who reaped benefits from the bonds have taken backstage while the persons he labels as ‘innocent’ have been commissioned to defend the DDEP.
He appealed to the Ministry of Finance to solicit the views of the Attorney-General before taking a decision on the domestic creditors.
He also urged Ken Ofori-Atta and his cohorts to exclude the individual bondholders in the arrangement, warning that any move contrary will worsen things for the government.
“We are overwhelmed by the situation. I believe by January 31 an agreement would have been reached and government would have adopted a position. We should make sure the final decision will be good news for Ghanaians. People want their money for various reasons so we should take a look at individual bondholders.
“There is a lot of money going waste that if we decide to be careful, we wouldn’t be in this situation. People have taken things free of charge and nothing happened. We have the money but we cant manage the money. We should seek the Attorney-General’s opinion on the matter. I believe the government will rescind the decision to go after the individual bondholders else we will know no peace in the country.
“Those who benefited will never come out and address the issue. When you say it, they accuse you of destroying the party but those who benefitted will never find time to explain it to the public. You are the one who took these decisions and benefitted from the bonds so you should be talking. Your consultants who benefitted should be doing the explanation on media platforms.
“They shouldn’t leave it to us the innocent people to struggle. People benefited and got commissions, they should be asking, how can you defend this? We have been overwhelmed by the whole thing so we need the consultants to come on media platforms. You can’t enjoy for us innocent people to suffer.
As part of conditionalities to achieve the IMF bailout, the government has recommended that all benefits due bondholders in 2023 will not be paid.
Per the arrangement, the payment of the benefits will resume in 2024 at the rate of 5%.
This arrangement has been widely criticized with critics saying that the government is worsening the situation of already burdened Ghanaians.
Source: Ghanaweb