Professor Stephen Adei, a former board chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), has voiced his disappointment with the way some Members of Parliament (MP) called for the ouster of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
Earlier this month, 98 Majority NPP MPs attended a news conference in Parliament and asked that President Akufo-Addo remove his cousin from his position due to what they called economic incompetence.
Subsequently, the minority in parliament submitted a resolution of censure to demand the resignation of the minister.
However, Prof. Adei is not pleased with how the calls for Ofori-removal Atta’s have evolved.
He claims that there are other ways to resolve the impeachment-related issues than to damage Mr. Ofori- Atta’s well-deserved reputation.
Prof Adei said, “Our leaders [Members of Parliament] must be very careful when they want to impugn the person’s integrity and almost branding him as a thief. I have no doubt at all that Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta has more integrity than 99 percent of all politicians I know in Ghana.”
The former GIMPA Rector stated on Upfront on Wednesday that two of the seven accusations made against the Minister by the Minority MPs were particularly concerning.
He noted that the accusation is a dent on his high-earned reputation.
“The charges on conflict of interest and the fact that he was supposed to have stashed some 100 million dollars elsewhere which impugn on his integrity. I have known Mr. Ofori-Atta for almost 23 years, I can say that he is a friend, a businessman of high integrity and therefore, for me, those two charges were very troubling.
“I believe that the NPP came into power over-committing themselves, there is over-borrowing and you know, you might disagree with policy and of course, there were internal and external factors, but I do not think that it is fair to impugn on the integrity of Ken Ofori-Atta. I know him personally as a Christian, as a businessman and as a politician.”
“If there is anybody in Ghana I can vouch for, none of his accusers can stand his integrity,” he added.
Touching on some key policies in the proposed 2023 budget, he disagreed with the proposed 2.5% VAT increment.