National Chairman of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Nana Ofori Owusu, has questioned why Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is so adamant about leaving office, even though he claims to be working for free.
Nana Owusu said that he was one of the first people to commend the finance minister for working for the country for free but he does not understand why he is refusing to vacate his position despite calls by many Ghanaians for him to step down.
“When I heard the finance minister does not take a salary, I applauded him because of his willingness to sacrifice his time and leave all his businesses to work for Ghana for free.
“Now, I don’t understand why the minister for finance, who says is not paid GH¢1 … who gets nothing from the public sector, is fighting so hard to keep a position his own people, including majority of MPs of his party, are urging him to relinquish.
“You are serving us for free and we are saying that we are grateful for the service but you should step aside and you are saying no I will continue serving,” he said in Twi in a Peace FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb.
The PPP national chairman added that the refusal of the finance minister to resign feeds into the conflict-of-interest allegation against him.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Joseph Whittal, has said that CHRAJ has received a petition from Tiger Eye PI, the outfit of Investigative Journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, to investigate Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
According to Whittal, Ana’s outfit wants CHRAJ to investigate Ofori-Atta for the conflict of interest allegation levelled against him for the involvement of his bank, Data Bank, in loans the government of Ghana contracts.
He added that the commission is currently examining the petition as to whether it has merits.
Source: Ghanaweb