The Member of Parliament for Asawase in the Ashanti Region, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka has detailed that finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta has presented inaccurate figures to Parliament on four occasions.
According to him, the figures change when the Minister is asked to present to international bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
He made the comments during a debate on the floor of parliament on a vote of censure against the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
He said: “In 2018 he reported to this house that the fiscal deficit was 3.9% of GDP when he had to report to the World Bank the actual was 7.1% of GDP
In 2019, he reported that the fiscal deficit was 4.8% when the actual to be reported to the International Monetary Fund the actual was 7.1% to GDP
In 2022, he reported that the fiscal deficit was 11.7% of GDP when the actual was 17.2 %. In 2021 he reported 9.2% when the actual was 12.4%.”
He said that the finance minister has shown beyond doubt that he is not able to the finances of the country, thus must be removed.
“What are we waiting for, from this Minister before we will now believe the time has come for him to exit? I am reliably informed that he is part of the impediment that is not making us conclude the negotiations with the IMF,” he said.
On November 10, 2022, the NPP side of parliament boycotted the vote of censure to remove Ofori-Atta.
The Speaker of Parliament, therefore, instituted an ad-hoc committee to probe the Finance Minister, after which their report will be presented to parliament for further debate.
Source: Ghanaweb