Former spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng has congratulated Haruna Iddrisu on his nomination as Minister of Education. He also noted the high expectations Ghanaians have for him in this role.
Speaking to JoyNews, Mr Kwarteng said, “I wish Haruna Iddrisu the best as he embarks on this important new role. I genuinely expect him to do well, he said.
“While I’m not here to offer premature praise, I believe that during our time at the Ministry, we worked hard to serve the nation to the best of our abilities, and I trust Haruna will do the same.”
He continued, “Expectations are always high in such positions, no matter where one stands. Ghanaians, in particular, have a strong interest in the education sector, and I am confident that Haruna will not only meet these expectations but will exceed them.”
Mr Kwarteng also highlighted that Haruna’s personal ambitions would be a key driving force in his success.
“I understand that he has significant aspirations for the future, and this will undoubtedly motivate him to give his best. It is in his own interest to perform well, as the impact of his work will extend far beyond his tenure,” he explained.
He further emphasised the vital role of the education sector, noting its far-reaching influence on society. “Education touches everyone in some way. Nearly every Ghanaian has been shaped by the education system, and people naturally care deeply about how it is managed. As a result, scrutiny is inevitable, but that comes with the role,” Mr Kwarteng said
Despite the challenges ahead, Mr Kwarteng remains optimistic about Haruna’s potential. “Public figures in education will always face intense scrutiny, but that’s part of the responsibility. I have no doubt that Haruna Iddrisu will rise to the occasion, and all that I can say is that I wish him every success as he takes on this important responsibility,” he concluded.
The spokesperson for Ghana’s Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng Frimpong, has achieved a new milestone in his diverse career by being called to the Ghana Bar.
This significant accomplishment marks another chapter in Mr Kwarteng’s professional growth and dedication to public service.
Known for his expertise in public relations and communication at the Ministry of Education, Mr Kwarteng now brings legal proficiency to his already impressive portfolio.
His work in shaping public discourse on education policies has been critical, ensuring effective communication between the government and the public.
Kwarteng’s academic journey spans various disciplines, showcasing his commitment to interdisciplinary expertise. His recent completion of professional legal training adds another dimension to his contributions in public administration and policymaking.
His leadership skills are well-established in both academic and professional spheres. As a former National President of the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG), he was instrumental in advocating for policies that benefited tertiary students nationwide.
In addition to his role at the Ministry, Kwarteng’s career has included positions such as Assistant Manager at the National Service Scheme, Business Development Manager at Agrimall Ghana Limited, and Director at Curbside Pharmacy Limited, underscoring his dedication to public service and development.
His commitment to community service and advocacy was also evident in his bid to represent Asante Akyem North Constituency during the 2024 NPP parliamentary primaries, though he did not secure the nomination. Nonetheless, his passion for education, human rights, and national development remains strong.
With his new legal credentials, Kwarteng’s influence in education policy, governance, and human rights is expected to expand, positioning him as an important figure in Ghana’s future political and social landscape.
His academic profile includes:
Academic Profile:
Qualifying Law Certification- Ghana School of Law Masters in Public Administration-KNUST Masters in International Law- University of Ghana Post Graduate Diploma in Occupational Health & Safety-GIMPA Bachelor of Law (LLB)- GIMPA Bachelor of Education in Health Sciences- UDS Certificate in PR- IPR
Kwarteng’s call to the Bar not only highlights his personal achievement but also enhances his ability to make significant contributions to Ghana’s public policy and governance.
The Ministry of Education’s Public Relations Officer, Kwasi Kwarteng, has unveiled the government’s intention to expand the Smart School initiative to encompass basic schools.
Mr Kwarteng clarified that the Smart Schools endeavor isn’t solely confined to Senior High Schools (SHS).
The Ministry intends to introduce a novel venture concentrating on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) classrooms.
Addressing the Pulse on Thursday, April 4, Kwarteng rebuffed assertions made by the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s presidential candidate, John Mahama, regarding the government’s Smart School project being a ploy to garner votes in the upcoming elections.
He highlighted a newly constructed kindergarten in Kwabenya, which, despite the students being ineligible to vote, boasts smart facilities.
Mr Kwarteng urged the populace to evaluate government policies based on their long-term implications rather than hastily aligning them with political affiliations.
“We need to have a strong and clear balance and try to distinguish the politics of the day from very sensitive national issues,” he said.
Mr Kwarteng emphasized the necessity for the NDC to comprehend the evolving educational paradigms within the global arena.
“We are not training students just to read and write alone. We are not training students to memorize and chew and pour. We are training students who are assertive, who are critical thinkers, who are problem-solvers and who, at the end of the day, the kind of education that they will have an impact on the socioeconomic transformation.”
The Ministry of Education’s PRO underscored that the triumph of a governmental initiative doesn’t automatically translate into electoral support for the ruling party.
“So, we need to elevate the conversation. We need to benchmark the conversation in a way that is very holistic and not necessarily play politics with everything.”
Public Relations Officer (PRO) at the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng Frimpong, has submitted his nomination forms to participate in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primaries in the Asante Akim North Constituency.
Speaking to the press after filing the forms, Mr. Frimpong emphasized the importance of unity among constituents to secure victory for the party.
He expressed his commitment to leading the party towards unity, considering it a patriotic duty to work towards the development of the area.
“This is a call for development which will be anchored on progress; at this critical time where the NPP needs to break the eight, I need to stand and unite my people to achieve this vision,” he said.
Mr. Kwarteng highlighted a concerning trend of apathy in voter behavior, pointing to a decrease in NPP votes in the constituency between 2020 and 2016. He stressed the urgency of addressing this trend promptly to reverse the decline and boost party support in the area.
The Asante Akim North Constituency has attracted the interest of five individuals vying for the parliamentary slot. The contenders include the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Mr. Andy Appiah Kubi, Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng Frimpong (PRO, Ministry of Education), Dr. Samuel Kwadwo Frimpong (Office of the Vice President), Mr. Stephen Obeng Saka (Businessman), and Mr. Kwadwo Baah Agyemang (former MP for the area).
The Ministry of Education (MoE) has declared the initiation of the process for school selection for the 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) participants.
In a statement issued on Friday, 11 August 2023, signed by its spokesperson Kwasi Kwarteng, the Ministry revealed that it has developed an informative video that elaborates on the school selection guidelines in order to provide clarity and guidelines on the school selection process.
“The video will be featured within schools and extensively broadcast on various television networks across the country. The video and the selection form will also be accessible on the official website of the Free Senior High School Secretariat,” the GES indicated.
Thus the in “School Showing of Selection Guidelines Video will start on August 21 to August 25 2023” with the specific date and time communicated to candidates by their Junior High School (JHS) headteachers.
While the “School Selection period has been scheduled from August 23 to September 4 2023. This is the period where you get the selection forms complete and submit them to your JHS head teacher,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, this year’s BECE has ended. The examination ended on Friday, August 11, 2023, across all centres in the country.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) is gearing up to commence the Senior High School (SHS) selection process for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates, starting from Wednesday, August 23.
To ensure clarity and guidance throughout the school selection process, the MoE has developed an informative video explaining the selection guidelines.
MoE’s spokesperson, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced this in a statement released in Accra on Friday.
“The video will be featured within schools and extensively broadcasted on various television networks nationwide. Additionally, the video and selection form will be accessible on the official website of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) Secretariat at www.freeshs.net,” he added.
Kwarteng revealed that the in-school presentation of the selection guidelines video will take place from August 21st to August 25th, 2023.
“Your JHS head teacher will communicate the specific date and time for your school. The School Selection Period is scheduled from August 23rd to September 4th, 2023. During this period, you will receive, complete, and submit the selection forms to your JHS head teacher,” he explained.
He conveyed the ministry’s gratitude to all participants for their involvement in facilitating an informed and transparent school selection process.
Teachers of Senior High Schools (SHSs) teachers across the country will soon benefit from a sum of GHS 62 million released by the government as their intervention grants.
According to The Chronicle newspaper, the grant forms part of incentives the government is providing to motivate SHS teachers.
It added that the grant is also to motivate teachers to provide extra tuition to all SHS students beyond normal school hours.
The report also indicated that a statement issued by the Minority of Education said that the grant is also to ensure that the quality of education provided at SHSs in Ghana is enhanced and sustained.
“It’s a commitment to ensuring smooth, timely, and efficient resource distribution in our quest to improving and sustaining quality education in Ghana,” parts of the statement is quoted.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of the ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng, has said that the government remains committed to resolving all the challenges faced by SHS across the country.
According to him, the government takes full responsibility for the current infrastructure deficit in schools because of the increasing number of enrolments.
“… we take full responsibility and assure all Ghanaians that, wherever there are challenges, we’ll go in and resolve them,” he said.
The PRO, however, posited that the infrastructure challenge is caused by schools indicating that they have vacant facilities while they have not.
“I’m still wondering why you could declare that you could take, for instance, 500 boarding students while you know very well that there are no spaces or beds for them,” he added.
Former President John Dramani Mahama’s spokesperson, Kwasi Kwarteng, has urged him to apologize to Ghanaian students for comparing the food they eat in schools to that of dogs.
As part of the rollout of the government’s flagship program, Free Senior High School, Mr. Mahama raised concern over the subpar quality of the food being served in the various Senior High Schools (SHSs) during his campaign tour in the Central Region (Free SHS).
John Dramani Mahama claims that the pupils are sickened and uncomfortable by the subpar food that is supplied to them.
“Today, if you go to see the kind of food the children are eating in the schools…you shudder to serve such food to your dogs at home,” he told delegates and party members in the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa Constituency.
Reacting to Mr Mahama’s comment, Mr Kwarteng said it is unpresidential for the former President to speak that way.
In a Facebook post, Mr Kwarteng noted “Former President John Dramani Mahama is known for his unpresidential remarks but little did we know he could be such loose, vulgar and low. How do you equate food for human beings to that of dogs? Jesus Christ!
“Mr Mahama is not only wrong in demeaning our collective efforts in providing quality education for Ghanaian students but he’s also wrong for reducing the school children to dogs. That’s insulting.
“Comments like this is not acceptable. Is backward, retrogressive, negative and unpresidential.
“Somebody whose leadership witnessed the worst educational outcomes ever shouldn’t be making such comments. He should apologize to Ghanaian Children!”
A Ghanaian of British ancestry who served as the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, Kwasi Kwarteng, has made headlines in recent days due to information that he agreed to work for a Korean corporation for a fee of £10,000 per day.
He was ignorant of the fact that the company was involved in fraudulent activities.
Actually, it was a fabrication of a political organization called Leading by Donkeys.
Moreover, Kwasi Kwarteng was not the only British Member of Parliament (MP) who was a victim of Led by Donkeys’ alleged duping scheme; there were about four other Conservative Party MPs who were also implicated in this.
Real reason behind this fake exercise by Led by Donkeys:
Details on parliament.uk indicate that a generation ago, the expectation of most MPs was for them to have another job, at least on part-time terms.
This was because until the reform of sitting hours in the 1990s, the Commons began work each day at 2.30pm, a schedule enabling many to continue with their profession at the Bar, or as a solicitor or journalist or doctor, the report added.
And then from the 1980s, another employment opportunity became widespread: MPs being able to act as consultants to lobbying companies or PR firms, and in explaining parliamentary procedure and investigating the likelihood of legislation being passed to them.
It is premised on such a conversation in the UK that the lead investigative journalist for the exposé, Anthony Barnett, set out to investigate this.
He indicated that the document was an experiment to find out whether MPs will find time to take another job, “furthering the interest of foreign companies” during the UK’s cost of living crisis.
He also stated that MPs in the UK are allowed to take as many jobs as possible and charge the amount of money they want but a lot of citizens have been protesting against this freedom.
What the investigators wanted to offer the former UK Chancellor:
According to a news report by theguardian.com, Kwasi Kwarteng and the other Tory MPs agreed to work for £10,000 a day to further the interests of a fake South Korean firm.
The former UK chancellor met investigators acting as staff of the fake Korean company at his parliamentary office and agreed in principle to be paid the daily rate of £10,000.
A video of the said meeting, which was more of a job interview, shared by Led by Donkeys showed Kwarteng touting his competencies and connections to prove that he is the right man for the job.
After initially stating that he will charge £10,000 per month, the former chancellor increased his rate to £10,000 per day after the investigator told him they are willing to pay him between £8,000 to £12,000 per day for his role.
“I have been an energy minister for three years, I was chancellor. You know, I have got a lot of experience in the UK,” he said.
He added that his work as an MP will not be an impediment to his duties in his new role with the South Korean company.
Kwasi Kwarteng even went on to say that he can bring on board the former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, whom he described as “a great campaigner”.
An impending inquiry reveals that two prominent Tory MPs unknowingly requested to be paid £10,000 per day to work for a fictitious corporation.
In February, Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor whose mini-budget wrecked the economy, also accepted to work for the fictitious company for “£10,000 a day.”
Meanwhile, Matt Hancock requested £1,500 per hour to serve as a consultant for a fictitious South Korean business that Led by Donkeys established the following month.
Amid a cost-of-living crisis, 10.4% inflation and sky-high food, fuel, rent and more costs, the campaign group claimed to be interviewing the two for lucrative roles on an international advisory board on top of their £84,100 MP salary.
According to a trailer released by the group today of its investigation, Kwarteng attended a preliminary meeting at his parliamentary office saying he did not need a ‘king’s ransom’ to be hired.
‘I would say, as an MP, I don’t need to… earn a king’s ransom, but I’m looking, I wouldn’t do anything less than, for about $10,000,’ he said, before clarifying it is in pounds.
The interviewer tells Kwarteng the company is looking ‘into 8,000 to 12,000 pounds a day’ for six board meetings.
‘How many days a month is that?’ Kwarteng replied, saying: ‘We’re not a million miles off.’
They were interviewed over Zoom by a woman claiming to be the senior executive of Hanseong Consulting in Seoul, South Korea, which was hoping to ‘expand into the UK and Europe’.
Kwarteng told her: ‘Particularly if I’m going to Korea, I would expect to be compensated for that.’
‘Yes definitely,’ the mock interviewer replied. ‘We will arrange all of the compensations.’
‘I’m £10,000 a day and I’d invoice it each day, I wouldn’t expect a regular retainer,’ he added, ‘but we could do it that way as well.’
Hancock similarly charged an eye-watering £1,500 per hour – which is more than double what an average Brit earns in a week.
When asked for his daily rate, the former health secretary said: ‘I do, yes. It’s 10,000 sterling.’
He was previously paid £320,000 to take part in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, for which he lost the whip.
Chair of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady also had an online meeting with the fake firm from his parliamentary office.
‘I don’t know about a daily rate, I suppose seeing your approach and the kind of expectations you have, I was thinking something like £60,000?,’ he said.
‘As an annual rate. If you think that’s far too cheap, let me know,’ he said with a smile.
According to The Guardian, Led By Donkeys approached 20 MPs from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.
Five agreed to be interviewed, but one disconnected the call early after growing suspicious.
MPs are free to take second jobs if they are not ministers – they must publicly declare any additional income they make.
Tory lawmakers have made a thumping £15,200,000 from their second jobs since the last general election. Jobs can include consultancy or being a lawyer.
They’re free to make meetings such as the one arranged by Led By Donkeys, and the three senior MPs all referred to their obligation to their constituents.
A spokesperson for Hancock said: ‘This failed attempt at entrapment in fact shows Matt acted within the letter and the spirit of the rules, making it crystal clear form the outset that his parliamentary and constituency duties are his primary responsibility for now.
‘Matt is leaving Parliament at the next election, so it is entirely to be expected that he should have exploratory conversations in the meantime.’
Sir Brady said that, having decided to leave the House of Commons, he has received a ‘number of approaches regarding future opportunities’.
He confirmed he had the meeting with the bogus company, adding: ‘I made it clear that any arrangement would have to be completely transparent and that whilst a Member of Parliament, I would only act within the terms of the Code of Conduct.
‘I also made it clear that whilst I could be flexible in attending international meetings in person, this would be subject to some important votes or commitments in Westminster.’
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has called for the publication of the “School placement for sale” committee report.
This comes on the back of the Education Ministry’s alleged refusal to take responsibility for errors and rather dragging GNAT in the widespread scandal that has hit the school placement system.
The Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng, according to reports had revealed that janitors and security personnel who were captured as middlemen in the investigative documentary by The Fourth Estate on the controversial ‘Computerised (School) Placement for Sale’ were not employees of the Education Ministry but of the GNAT Hostel.
However, GNAT in reaction to the matter described it as “unfortunate and unbecoming of a body with which we share a common aspiration of guaranteeing the country’s young ones a future of bliss and certainty through education.”
It added: “In view of the attacks by Mr. Kwesi Kwarteng on the Ghana National Association of Teachers, GNAT, we demand the publication of the Committee’s report on ‘School placement for sale’ to assure parents, guardians, and the entire Ghanaian Public and all concerned of its (MOE/GES) continued commitment to upholding standards on the education front.”
Meanwhile, GNAT wants the Director-General to rebuke Mr. Kwesi Kwarteng to refrain from dragging the image of the Association into disrepute on any platform he appears on in the interest of ensuring industrial peace and harmony in the country and the educational front.
“The GNAT is happy that none of its staff was incriminated by the Fourth Estate and hopes that going into the future, the Ministry of Education would plug all loopholes, so that the exercise would not, in the words of Mr. Kwesi Kwarteng, be turned into a marketplace where officials linked to the exercise would exercise their mandate through a network of intermediaries, such as security guards and cleaners, as exposed by the Fourth Estate.
“As a key stakeholder in the sector, GNAT will always collaborate with the Ministry of Education in its efforts to improve the sector but will not condone comments and acts that are intended to tarnish the image of the Association,” GNAT warned in its statement.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) is challenging the Education Ministry and GES to publish the report on investigation into the ‘School Placement for Sale’ saga to help put matters to rest.
This follows the disclosure by the Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng, that janitors and security personnel who were captured as middlemen in the investigative documentary by The Fourth Estate, are not employees of the Education Ministry, but that of the GNAT Hostel.
He made this revelation while contributing to discussions on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, February 20.
But reacting to the claim, the General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah, said the allegation by Mr Kwarteng that a staff of the Association was identified as one of the brains behind the unfortunate happening, is inaccurate.
GNAT insists that no staff of the Association was involved in the scandal.
“No GNAT staff was involved. Let Kwasi Kwarteng come and tell us, let him come and tell us,” he stressed in an audio aired on Joy FM’s Midday news on Wednesday.
According to him, the Education Ministry must reprimand Kwasi Kwarteng for peddling falsehood.
“We demand that the Minister together with the DG must reprimand him, he must be rebuked. It is becoming the hallmark of Kwasi Kwarteng,” he said.
“And this one, we want to tell the Ghana Education Service that should they keep quiet on this particular one, we as an organisation will give them a response,” he added.
Itwould be recalled that in January, a Fourth Estate‘s investigative piece uncovered some rot in the placement into senior high schools.
The investigation discovered that instead of the resolution centre serving as a spot to correct certain anomalies, it was turned into a marketplace where officials linked to the placement executed their trade through a network of intermediaries, mostly security guards and cleaners.
Even though only two individuals – the Education Minister and the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) – were the ones given access and passwords to approve protocol placement into Category A senior high schools, it has not stopped people from defrauding parents
In order to put the “School Placement for Sale” scandal to rest, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) is urging the Education Ministryand GES to release the findings of its probe.
This follows the disclosure by the Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng, that janitors and security personnel who were captured as middlemen in the investigative documentary by The Fourth Estate, are not employees of the Education Ministry, but that of the GNAT Hostel.
He made this revelation while contributing to discussions on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, February 20.
But reacting to the claim, the General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah, said the allegation by Mr Kwarteng that a staff of the Association was identified as one of the brains behind the unfortunate happening, is inaccurate.
GNAT insists that no staff of the Association was involved in the scandal.
“No GNAT staff was involved. Let Kwasi Kwarteng come and tell us, let him come and tell us,” he stressed in an audio aired on Joy FM’s Midday news on Wednesday.
According to him, the Education Ministry must reprimand Kwasi Kwarteng for peddling falsehood.
“We demand that the Minister together with the DG must reprimand him, he must be rebuked. It is becoming the hallmark of Kwasi Kwarteng,” he said.
“And this one, we want to tell the Ghana Education Service that should they keep quiet on this particular one, we as an organisation will give them a response,” he added.
Itwould be recalled that in January, a Fourth Estate‘s investigative piece uncovered some rot in the placement into senior high schools.
The investigation discovered that instead of the resolution centre serving as a spot to correct certain anomalies, it was turned into a marketplace where officials linked to the placement executed their trade through a network of intermediaries, mostly security guards and cleaners.
Even though only two individuals – the Education Minister and the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) – were the ones given access and passwords to approve protocol placement into Category A senior high schools, it has not stopped people from defrauding parents
The Ministry of Education has reacted to calls for the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum to be indicted over the school placement scandal.
The Ministry says such calls are absurd.
It follows reports that placement fraud has been traced to the office of the Minister of Education as some officials allegedly took GHC7,000 to place students at Wesely Girls and Achimota Senior High School.
Speaking to Starr News, the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng said such reports are untrue.
“If you look at the placement arrangement, 90% of vacancies go to students through the automatic system. The remaining 10% is shared between the schools and the general public respectively. When it comes to that which goes to the general public, it takes the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, TVET, and other agencies to do the distribution. In the process of the distribution, there is the possibility that because you have a human interface people may compromise the system.
“But at the end of the day, it is almost impossible or very difficult that any list presented to the Minister, he would be able to know that somebody took a or b amount of money. So if any person is to conclude that because there’s a suspicion that some of the school placement was secured through monetary consideration and for that matter the Minister should be indicted, it is so absurd, so unreasonable and very untenable,” he continued.
Claims that the ringleader in Fourth Estate’s investigative story “School Placement for Sale” is a staff member have been refuted by the Education Ministry.
The Rachel character in the documentary that exposed widespread fraud in the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSPSS) served as a go-between for the purported “powerful men” at the Education Ministry.
The Education Ministry’s spokeswoman, Kwasi Kwarteng, stated that it is inaccurate that she is a staff member but that she had worked at the Ministry’s canteen.
“The understanding that I have from Manasseh’s video is that she was a former worker with the Ministry where she used to work with the Ministry’s canteen, she was not even working for the Ministry per se, but a private individual working in the Ministry’s canteen,” he said.
However, Mr. Kwarteng stated anyone could have posed as a staff member in his organization to extort money from parents while speaking on JoyNews on Saturday about the eight people who were jailed for serving as middlemen for the Ministry.
“The Ministry of Education had rented a private facility at the GNAT hostel which operated as a resolution centre where we were serving the general public.
“It was possible that everybody could get in, establish the case, advance the reasons why there has to be changes for his or her ward. Within this process its possible there could be a compromise.
“Somebody can also take your money and make a very strong case without even any officer taking money, but of course the exploitation continues,” he added.
The spokesperson expressed his joy in the fact that the faces of these individuals were clear and believes the culprits will be able to expose the bad nuts at the Ministry.
Mr Kwarteng did not deny that there may be staff of the Ministry involved in the fraudulent act, but vehemently rejected the allegation that the heads of Education Ministry and Director General of the GES were involved.
The Minister of Education and Ghana Education Service are the only individuals with the passwords that give them access to place students in Grade A schools.
As such, after the investigation, many queried how the intermediaries were able to add names to the list of these schools.
Mr Kwarteng however, explained that 90% of placement was done through the automatic placement.
The remainder, he said, is then divided equally by the school and the Education Service, adding that heads of various school can accept students to their institution then send a message to the Service for approval.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng, has assured that the internal investigation into accusations of corruption concerning the computerized school selection and placement system has been finalized.
According to him, the report is ready and “all consequential decisions within the report will be communicated.”
His comment comes on the back of a JoyNews-Fourth Estate documentary, ‘School Placement for Sale’ where it was revealed that some agents have been receiving bribes from parents to place their wards into Category A schools.
The documentary had further revealed that an earlier report concerning the nefarious phenomenon had been made to the Police CID for investigation by the outgone Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwah and investigations had been initiated.
However, the Police investigations were cut short for an internal investigation spearheaded by the Ministry of Education to carry on.
Speaking concerning the internal investigation on JoyNews’ PM Express, Kwasi Kwarteng said, the Committee set up by the Minister of Education to carry out the investigation have already submitted their recommendations to the Minister.
“There were some recommendations from the committee and of course, some of the recommendations bother on internal decisions that even the Minister for Education himself must take. There were other decisions that we also had to rely on institutions like National Security, the Police and what have you.
“GES also had their role to play. But the point is that the report is ready, the Minister of Education has the report and all consequential decisions within the report will be communicated,” he said.
He said the only reason the report has delayed is because the Ministry had to await information from other institutions like the Police and the Ministry of National Security in order to draw conclusions and recommendations.
Kwasi Kwarteng assured stakeholders of the Ministry’s resolve to continuously work with them to ensure that the guiding principle of transparency and equity of the CSSPS is protected.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Education says his outfit takes full responsibility for the widespread reports of malnourishment of students and food shortage in some senior high schools in the country.
Admitting the challenges in an interview on the Super Morning Show on Monday, Kwasi Kwarteng said the Ministry is aware of the feeding crisis which has plagued some high schools.
According to him, the challenge is real; adding that he is aware of how some heads of second-cycled institutions struggle to provide decent meals to boarding students.
He, however, assured that the Ministry is working around the clock to address the challenge which has become a huge disincentive to effective teaching and learning.
“I appreciate the concerns that have been raised. I am not here to reject or deny them.
“My first comment is that no matter the situation, that is why we are there as leadership. And the beauty of leadership is to take responsibility no mater how the issues are and then make some inputs with regards to whatever concerns have been raised”, Kwasi Kwarteng said.
He continued, “The Dr Adwutwum-led administration ultimately takes responsibility for everything.
“The assurance we’re going to give parents is that, even though officially we’ve not had these complaints when it comes to the food shortages, where there are indeed, some level of challenges with regards to supplies, be it transportation issues, be it logistical issues, quickly when we get the name of the school, we’ll go in intervene and resolve it”.
Having assured guardians about government’s willingness to resolve the crisis, he however lamented the creation of false stories on food shortages in senior high schools.
He said while the challenges exist, they must not be falsely presented to court disaffection for the government.
Food shortage in senior high schools has been on the front burner following widespread reports about how some students find it difficult to come by three square meals a day.
As a result, some of these underfed students are compelled to call their guardians to bring them food from home, due to the scanty and poor quality food they receive in school.
This challenge has become predominant in recent times, forcing some parents to plead with government to allow them start feeding their wards in school.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has dispelled rumours about the victimisation of heads of senior high schools who bring these issues to the fore.
Touching on the issue, Mr. Kwarteng said government is receptive to feedback on the feeding crisis and would not attack anybody who genuinely highlights the setbacks.
What Jeremy Hunt sets out later is going to be a stark contrast to the “new era” promised by Kwasi Kwarteng just eight weeks ago. Taxes will go up; spending will be cut.
The aim is to reassure the markets that he can balance the books and to start to bring down the high rate of inflation, which the chancellor will call “the enemy of stability”.
He is expected to blame rising prices for higher mortgage rates, “industrial unrest” and for cutting funding for public services.
Hunt is doing this with a recession looming and in the knowledge that there are concerns on his own backbenches – so he will also promise to be “compassionate” and “fair”.
Ministers have been preparing the ground for weeks; the chancellor is likely to have headed off some big potential flashpoints – albeit not cheaply – with the expected increases to pensionsand benefits, and an expectation that the health budget will be protected.
A decision to defer some of the pain to later years – and so beyond the next election – is also likely to pose a challenge for Labour.
Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has said he warned Liz Truss she was going too fast with her ill-fated economic plans.
In his first interview since he was sacked by the then PM, Mr Kwarteng told TalkTV he had warned her to “slow down” after September’s mini-budget.
He said he told her it was “mad” to fire him and she would only last “three or four weeks” if she did.
“Little did I know it was only going to be six days,” he added.
Mr Kwarteng was dramatically fired by Ms Truss in October, two weeks after their tax-cutting mini-budget sparked turmoil on financial markets.
After abandoning almost all of the plan in a bid to stay in power, she announced her resignation a few days later after support from Tory MPs ebbed away.
Speaking to TalkTV Mr Kwarteng said that he had warned Ms Truss about going at a breakneck speed with economic measures after the mini-budget.
“She said, ‘Well, I’ve only got two years’ and I said, ‘You will have two months if you carry on like this’. And that is, I’m afraid, what happened.”
He also said: “I think the prime minister was very much of the view that we needed to move things fast. But I think it was too quick.”
In the interview he acknowledged he had to “bear some responsibility” for the pace of the changes, which were “too quick”.
He also revealed he found out he was going to be sacked when he saw a journalist tweeting about it while he was in the car going to Downing Street, after being summoned back from a trip to the US.
He said he had told her: “Prime ministers don’t get rid of chancellors.”
The former chancellor said he did not think the prime minister could fire him “just for implementing what she campaigned on.”
The governmenthas been urged to investigate the claims that former prime minister Liz Truss’s phone was hacked while she was foreign secretary.
The Mail on Sunday reported private messages between Ms Truss and foreign officials, including about the Ukraine war, fell into foreign hands.
The hack was discovered during the summer Tory leadership campaign but the news was suppressed, the paper said.
The government said it had “robust” cyber-threat protection in place.
The spokesperson added that the government “did not comment on individuals’ security arrangements”.
Details about the hack were suppressed by then-prime minister Boris Johnson and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, The Mail on Sunday claimed, citing what it said amounted to a “news blackout” imposed by Mr Case.
The newspaper also said private messages exchanged between Ms Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, her close friend whom she made chancellor when she became prime minister, were also uncovered by the alleged hack.
It is not clear how any hack happened, but opposition parties have seized on the issue.
“There are immensely important national security issues raised by an attack like this by a hostile state which will have been taken extremely seriously by our intelligence and security agencies,” said shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper.
The Mail on Sunday reported agents suspected of working for Russia had been responsible for the alleged hacking, citing unnamed sources, but the BBC has not been able to verify this.
The Liberal Democrat’s foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran MP raised concerns about why the alleged hack had not been made public earlier.
“We need an urgent independent investigation to uncover the truth,” Ms Moran said. “If it turns out this information was withheld from the public to protect Liz Truss’s leadership bid, that would be unforgivable.”
The government has refused to comment on any of the details reported by the Mail on Sunday.
“The government has robust systems to protect against cyber threats,” a spokesman said. “That includes regular security briefings forministers and advice on protecting their personal data and mitigating cyber threats.”
Ghanaian media personality, Gifty Anti, says he has never advised women to stay away from marriage.
According to her, in all her advocacies on women empowerment, she has never downplayed the relevance of marriage or urged her fellow women to abandon their relationships.
Speaking in an interview with JoyNews’ Paa Kwesi Schandorf on Wednesday, she explained that even though marriage is important, her emphasis has been that women should not see marriage as the ultimate indicator of success.
She said many women have been oriented to see marriage as what makes them complete; a view she insisted should be completely discarded.
“I dare anybody till today to bring a tape where I’ve said or somewhere I’ve written that marriage is not good [and] that I don’t want women to get married. What they will tell you is that, that is the perception they got. That’s the impression they got”, the ace broadcaster stressed.
“Consistently, I’ve talked about the fact that marriage is not what will make a woman achieve her goals or become somebody. You need to know who you are.
And I’ve spoken in churches over and over again and told the young ladies that if you’re desperate for marriage, you’ll be desperate throughout the marriage.
I’ve told them to prepare themselves to know who they are. To have their own identity before they get into marriage”, she added.
Gifty Anti’s comments come in the wakeof a recent Facebook post by the spokesperson of the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng, who accused her of destroying young women who listened to her feminism sermons in the past.
According to Mr. Kwarteng, her audience who heeded her advice on women empowerment began unhealthy competitions with men which collapsed their homes and marriages.
In his post on Wednesday, he said the former news anchor inspired her followers to shun marriage and focus on their careers; only to later do the opposite.
In Mr. Kwarteng’s view, this constitutes a ‘betrayal’ which Gifty must correct by teaching women to balance their career aspirations with other vital aspects of their lives.
But reacting to this, the ace broadcaster said she will not respond to the spokesperson of the Education Ministry and other social media critics regarding her views on feminism.
According to the avowed feminist, even though she is passionate about the empowerment of women, she will not respond to her social media critics.
Speaking to JoyNews’ Paa Kwesi Schandorf , she stated that she stands by her assertion that men fear women with power, but won’t respond to critics on social media.
“I’m sure you’ve read the story [and] you’ve listened to the tape.
I will not answer to anybody who attacks me on social media. If I want to, I will go there and do it. But if you as a very good journalist, a seasoned one has questions for me, I will answer. But I will not react to anything that anybody said about me on social media”, she said.
She added “This gentleman [Kwasi Kwarteng] is not the only one to have reacted. A lot of other guys have and some women as well. So I will not respond to this gentleman.
Even if the President had written that on social media, I wouldn’t have responded in any interview. People hide behind social media and so all sorts of things”.
Background
It will be recalled that over a decade ago, Gifty Anti began a series of spirited advocacies calling on women to focus on their career goals instead of yielding to demands for them to get married.
On television, radio and other platforms, she stressed the need for women to put more emphasis on personal excellence instead of responding to the pressure to marry and raise children.
This was widely embraced by a lot of her followers who subsequently praised her resilience in combating patriarchy. At conferences and other public fora, she was hailed for helping bring women into the limelight.
A few years after this wave, Gifty Anti got married to the Chief of Akwamu Adumasa, Nana Ansah Kwao IV.
Their colourful union happened at the Trinity Baptist Church on 25th October, 2015.
Nana and Gifty at the altar
In what was hailed as a ‘royal wedding’, the two broadcasters were celebrated for days across both traditional and social media, amidst tons of congratulatory messages.
However, a section of the public took exception to Gifty’s marriage, accusing her of backing down on her initial ideals.
According to her critics, it was disingenuous for her to get married after expressing so much hate and dislike for men.
The two broadcasters in hearty smiles during the eventful ceremony
This position is what Mr. Kwarteng re-echoed in his Facebook comments on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, some individuals have thrown their weight behind Mr. Kwarteng’s criticisms; describing it as valid.
According to them, the broadcaster deceived the public with her advocacies.
Others have however, disagreed with Kwasi Kwarteng’s assertions, describing them as baseless attacks.
At the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF this month, lobbyists circulated photographs of Ghana’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta sitting together with Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng.
Before the end of the week, Chancellor Kwarteng was on a flight back to London, forced to cancel his participation in the rest of the summit because his job was at risk. Within days, the British government had collapsed, and Prime Minister Liz Truss had joined Kwarteng on the back benches.
This week Ghana’s Ofori-Atta faces a rebellion from MPs in his own party, calling for his resignation and accusing him of mismanaging the economy. The risk that London’s political drama plays out similarly in Accra must worry Ofori-Atta and President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Common shaky ground
On the surface, both men are relatively similar; Ghanaian economists and bankers are in charge of the fiscus of two countries with a shared colonial experience.
However, there is a deeper layer to the symbolic ties between the Chancellor and the Minister.
Kwasi Kwarteng’s woes are universally acknowledged to have stemmed from his botched mini-budget. At a time of widespread anguish about inflation and interest rate hikes in America, the mini-budget, with its ideological flourish of “the largest tax cuts since 1972” and unfunded growth pills, rang of neoliberal excess.
Interestingly, the heaviest backlash came from the markets. A Conservative Prime Minister and her Chancellor didn’t expect the blowback to come from the financial heartlands.
After all, caps on bankers’ bonuses were to be scrapped, and the highest tax rate (for the top 1.1%, roughly a third of whom work in financial services) was to be brought down from 45% to 40%. Planned corporation tax increases were dropped.
And a raft of regulations bogging down business was to be cut’ more free zones, with even fewer taxes and regulations, created. A Conservative newspaper, the Daily Mail, crooned: “A Tory budget at last!”
Surely the grandees of the historic square mile of central London, the fount of global capitalism, would jump on board? The charm offensive of the Chancellor, himself a JPMorgan alum and longtime finance guy, must have seen to that?
They didn’t.
Analysts deciphered the consequences of a mini-budget to include a massive spate of borrowing at a time of rising interest rates, an undoing of the Bank of England’s efforts to tackle inflation, and a squeeze of middle-class incomes (in the ~£60,000 to ¬£120,000 band), with potential effects on demand.
The market took a longer horizon and broader-demographic perspective. That aligns with the increasingly nuanced view of the link between pro-growth tax cuts and market benefit that has emerged from the vast literature on the Trump tax cuts.
So, the markets revolted.
Yields on long-term government securities, a measure of investors’ sense of the state’s creditworthiness and likely cost of future borrowing, rose by a staggering 150 basis points. The pound sterling sank immediately.
Lunging for stability, the blindsided Bank of England announced a £65 billion program to buy back government bonds caught in therout, reversing an earlier plan to sell £80 billion more into the market. Only the wholesale repudiation of the Kwarteng-Truss mini-budget could calm the markets.
Off the straight and narrow
It is mainly the short-lived tenor of Britain’s most recent episode of fiscal adventurism that marks it out from Ghana.
In their six years in power, the ruling party in Ghana has sought to transform the country’s finances into a rollercoaster capital market play. It has devised various unprecedented fiscal devices to do so.
It has securitised future tax streams, grabbed the cash up-front, and splashed on massive capital and welfare projects. The securitisation extravaganza has touched taxes meant to fund the educational sector, energy sector levies, and road taxes.
As future revenue streams have been packaged into products on the capital markets and sold and spent upfront, the government’s budget has become rigid, unable to respond to international pressure. The government’s love for fiscal gaming encouraged support for a domestic debt securities market (GFIM) in Ghana.
At its birth in 2015, total trade turnover hovered around cedis 5 billion in local currency units. In the first nine months of this year, trade volumes exceeded cedis170 bn.
Even adjusted for inflation, it has grown ten times, but almost all securities traded are government-issued. This means they reflect more than anything the government’s unrelenting use of the capital markets to fund a degree of fiscal expansion never before witnessed. And not just domestically.
From tripling Eurobond issuances, to opening up domestic debt to foreign investors, Ghana’s government took capital market liberalisation to every possible extreme. At one point, Ghana ranked number five worldwide for foreign ownership of domestic debt.
International capital maestros like Michael Hasenstab, at the height of his “Emerging Markets Bond King” reputation, piled in. In 2017, Ghana rode on the back of such powerbrokers to launch Africa’s largest-ever dollar-denominated domestic bond.
Bills, bills, bills
All this fiscal brinksmanship came at a cost: debt servicing.
Today, Ghana is on course to spend nearly 60% of all government revenue just dealing with debt. This is up from about 10% a decade and a half ago when the international community forgave a chunk of Ghana’s debt pile from previous decades of excesses.
Now, Ghana’s capital market friends have brought out the whips. They have shut her out of the market and are dumping the bonds they bought previously.
Their actions have finally driven Ghana to the IMF for much-needed disciplining. Inflation is hovering around 40% and the cedi has plunged from about 5.8 to the dollar at the beginning of the year to more than 14.5 to the dollar.
It seems that the government’s bubbly enthusiasm for capital market devices, and the massive hoard of fees and commissions (some shared by companies founded by the Finance Minister and his deputy), have not been sufficient to keep the love story going.
These days, far from endearing politicians to the markets, neoliberal fiscal adventurism is a sure way to invite their painful censure.
Liz Truss liftedthe Conservatives’ 2019 ban on fracking for shale gas, claiming it would help with rising energy costs. However, the measure was opposed by many Conservatives whose constituents are opposed to fracking in their areas.
Rishi Sunak is reinstating the ban on fracking that Liz Truss controversially lifted.
During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, the new prime minister said he stands “by the manifesto” on fracking.
The Conservative 2019 manifesto placed a moratorium on fracking in England following opposition from environmentalists and local communities.
Mr Sunak’s spokesman explicitly confirmed he was reinstating the ban after PMQs.
Ms Truss lifted the ban last month as part of her plan to limit rising energy costs but said fracking would only resume where there was local consent.
Fracking was ultimately what brought her government down after Labour tabled an opposition day motion last Wednesday calling for a draft law to ban fracking.
But the Tory party whips said the motion was actually a vote of confidence in the government and told Conservative MPs they had to vote against it or face being suspended.
However, many of them and their constituents are opposed to fracking and said they could not vote to support fracking, even if the whips saw the vote as something different.
As the vote was taking place there were accusations of “bullying” and “manhandling” of Tory MPs who were being told to vote against the motion.
Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow climate and net zero secretaries, said Mr Sunak voted against Labour’s fracking ban last week and is now putting a moratorium on the practice.
“Whatever their latest position, the truth is that the Tories have shown that they cannot be trusted on the issue of fracking,” he said.
Ms Truss had to make a number of U-turns after her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng brought in a raft of unfunded tax cuts which unleashed economic turmoil in the UK for weeks.
Mr Sunak has, so far, kept most of those U-turns but the fracking ban is the first Truss policy he has reversed since he became PM on Tuesday.
The gilt market was returned to its pre-Liz Truss mini-budget level shortly after Rishi Sunak was declared as Tory leader.
Gilts, or UK government bonds, are an essential part of our financial markets.
Following the mini-budget, the Bank of England was forced to intervene to prevent the gilt market from worsening.
UK government bonds were already staging a rally as Monday began and this rally became more aggressive as it became clearer that Rishi Sunak would likely face an unopposed run to the top job, business reporter Sharon Marris writes.
The 30-year gilt had been pummelled after Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget in September but it recovered late on Monday to levels seen before Mr Kwarteng’s tax-cutting plans had prompted a markets meltdown.
Investors are betting that Mr Sunak, a former chancellor with a background in finance, will stick with the economic policies announced by current chancellor Jeremy Hunt, which have calmed the markets in recent days.
After a mainly shadowy leadership race, the veil has cleared and we now have a new prime minister. We’ll never know how many supporters Penny Mordaunt – or Boris Johnson – had, but it wasn’t clear if this would be a coronation or a struggle until the very end.
It is extraordinary to see the man who was defeated by Liz Truss sevenweeks ago replacing her so soon. This time 12 days ago, Kwasi Kwarteng was chancellor and Liz Truss was pushing ahead with her economic vision. Few could have imagined Rishi Sunak would have another shot at the top job so soon.
But today it became clear a Sunak era was close. Pressure had been mounting on Ms. Mordaunt, who was stuck on 25 public endorsements this morning, to pull out as her team dug in. Behind the scenes, they said she had more than 90 backers. She might indeed have been close, but the momentum from the start of this race has been with Mr Sunak.
He did no media interviews, there were no swish videos – just one plain statement announcing he wanted to be the next prime minister.
The former chancellor has managed to bring together very different wings of the party, from Caroline Naokes to Suella Braverman. Even the most ardent of Boris Johnson backers James Duddridge eventually rowed in behind Mr Sunak. His allies say has been proven right on the economy, but the divisions in the Tory party run deep and could quickly resurface. He inherits a grim in-tray in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and will need to find a way to stop the Tory party from tearing itself apart.
They say divided parties don’t win elections. As the next general election slowly starts to creep into view, will Mr Sunak be able to unite the party enough to govern effectively? He certainly has his work cut out.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
On Wednesday, October 20, 2022, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss announced her resignation from the role.
Liz Truss stepped down as Prime Minister of the UK after just 45 days, setting a record as the shortest-lived PM of the UK.
Her resignation came on the back of a series of U-turns on her economic plan which led to the axing of the Chancellor of Finance, Kwasi Kwarteng.
It does however appear that there were some spiritual anglings to her short reign as the PM of the UK which is currently experiencing an economic meltdown.
Two Ghanaian prophets, Badu Kobi of the Glorious Wave Chapel International and Prophet Amoako Attah of the Parliament Chapel International prophesied the resignation of Liz Truss four days before she made it public that she was stepping down.
In separate videos published on their social media handles, the two prophets disclosed that Liz Truss had days in the spiritual realm and was not going to last long in office.
Amoako Attah said “this woman will not spend a year in office. She has days, weeks and months but not a year. Other people will prefer the return of Boris Johnson.
Prophet Badu Kobi said, “Liz Truss will be the shortest serving Prime Minister. He cannot be in the shadows of a failure. Liz Truss will be the shortest in the history of Great Britain”.
Speaking at a press conference at No 10 Downing Street on Thursday afternoon, Truss said she came into office at a time of “great economic and international instability”.
“I recognize…given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” she noted.
The former deputy governor of the Bank of England says the future Prime Minister will have to keep Jeremy Hunt as chancellor.
Prof Charlie Bean has been telling BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme that appointing a new chancellor would “generate volatility”.
He says any change to Hunt’s economic programme would be “problematic”,
“It is a significant tying of hands.”
Prof Bean praises Hunt for doing “quite a good job” of calming the markets and setting out a broad direction by “unwinding two-thirds” of the cost of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget which caused financial chaos last month.
He says there could be some “tweaking at the margins” of Hunt’s plans – but it would be “problematic” if the new PM came in and said they wanted a more significant change in the economic package ahead of the financial statement on 31 October.
The Ministry of Education has described as unacceptable the posture of some teacher unions with regard to the appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Reacting to the claims by the teacher unions, the Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng, said the stance of the teachers is disrespectful and must not be entertained.
“It is not funny. It is very disrespectful to the number one person of the land [President Akufo-Addo] and we are very surprised,” Mr. Kwarteng said.
“We thought the union leaders should have known better,” the spokesperson added.
Dr. Eric Nkansah replaced Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa as the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service.
The four teacher unions at a press conference on Thursday criticised the decision, arguing that the new Director General of the GES is not a professional teacher and as such not fit for the role.
“He is a banking officer. He has not risen through the teaching ranks,” President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu said to Citi News.
President Akufo-Addo is leading the trends on social media platform; Twitter, following the resignation of UK’s Prime Minister, Liz Truss.
Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister of the UK some 45 days after she took office.
This comes about a week after UK-born Ghanaian Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked amid fallouts from the mini-budget presented before UK parliament.
Her resignation comes at a time Ghanaians are calling for the President and Finance minister to resign due to the current economic crisis the country is facing.
Following the announcement of Liz Truss’ resignation, Ghanaians have taken to Twitter to question why president Akufo-Addo has failed to resign despite the worsening economic crisis and corruption.
A twitter user, Vincent Aperko, said Liz Truss has resigned but Addo D is still president of Ghana after failing to #FixTheCountry. I still wonder how and why disappointed NNP members still defend Nana Addo outside.”
Another User, Kuffour will be soo disappointed in Addo D’s government . I now understand why he wanted Alancash to be president instead of Nana Addo”
Below are some of the tweets:
Liz Truss has resigned but Addo D is still president of Ghana after failing to #FixTheCountry. I still wonder how and why disappointed NNP members still defend Nana Addo outside. pic.twitter.com/XCF3avDWCc
You people say you no dey like Mahama, Bawumia too you no dey like. You say make Kennedy Agyapong too komot for der. Now some are even saying Alan Cash is part of Addo D’s administration so they don’t want him either. So now, who do you people want?
Anybody who says “Mahama is not an option” is a big Fool…with greatest of respects! Are you the option? People should not use their disappointment in Addo D and His cohorts to spew Nonsense. Ghanaians are fed up with the double standards ???? @ElikemKotoko@AnnanPerry
The development comes almost a week after Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng was relieved from his post amid fallouts from the mini-budget presented before the UK parliament.
The budget which has since sparked financial turmoil in the markets also caused a revolt among Conservative lawmakers in the UK.
Truss’ resignation comes after just 45 days in office, making her the shortest-serving PM in British history.
Speaking at a press conference at No 10 Downing Street on Thursday afternoon, Truss said she came into office at a time of “great economic and international instability”.
“I recognise…given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” she noted.
My life is bizarre in many ways. My parents were born in Ghana in the early 1940s; I was born in London. I am 41, single and a Conservative MP. I am also a published historian, a Cambridge graduate, a former scholarship boy at Eton.
I am not writing this as an idle boast. I am just saying that modern life is complicated. When I started thinking about being a Conservative MP, about 15 years ago, the idea of a black Conservative was much more strange than it is now.
I remember people saying, ‘How can you be a Conservative? You’re black!’ But I got in. My constituency, Spelthorne, is just outside London. It’s a wonderful area to represent in parliament. A vibrant, dynamic and economically successful place. The funny thing about it, from the point of view of a British Conservative of Ghanaian origin, is that 90 per cent of the population is white British.
Some people think this strange, but the fact that Spelthorne is represented by me should be celebrated in British democracy.
There aren’t many countries where representatives are elected from a different faith or background to the vast majority of constituents. This is what an advanced democracy looks like.
In the borough itself, people are generally courteous and friendly. The constituency is imbued with an old-world charm, a sense of decorum and a degree of politeness. One lady at a summer fair, speaking to me, recently said that running a second EU referendum would be something ‘an African tyrant’ might do. She then said sorry. This made any offence I might have taken worse!
In Westminster, the atmosphere is different. There is a consistent expectation in the media that MPs from ethnic minorities will engage with ‘black’ issues, like knife crime in London. But they never talk about the incredible appetite for entrepreneurship found among parts of the African community in Britain. It’s as if being from a particular background gives a politician a God-given right to speak on behalf of every single person from that background. This is the heart of identity politics, which has dominated the left for a couple of decades.
Of course, linking ethnic background to a political party is a fairly crazy thing to do. There are certain patterns but it’s not as if mere skin colour or ethnicity should proscribe the political choices an individual makes. It seems to me the very definition of racism is to believe all members of an ethnic group will think the same thing, politically. To expect all Chinese people to have the same views on political economy, ethics, and religion would rightly be thought of as racist.
Taken at its most extreme, this way of thinking assumes that only women can represent women, only men can represent men, and only gay men can represent gay men. The only representative a black lesbian can have is, you’ve guessed it, a black lesbian. I would only be able to represent privately educated, single, 40-something black men.
Of course, this is the road to madness and this kind of thinking contradicts a very basic premise of representative democracy. The MP should not be expected to be an identikit replica of some mythical ‘average voter’ in the constituency. If this is what we want, why not ask the voters directly themselves? We could have referendums, like the one we had in Europe, on every issue under the sun: gay marriage, climate change bills and so forth. Death penalty, anyone?
I make a point of attending diaspora events – when the organisers give me enough notice. It’s mostly because I remember that when I applied to be on the Conservative Candidates’ list in 2003, there were no ethnic-minority Conservative MPs. There were none. There were no ‘role models’, or mentors, or anything of that kind. It was only with the election of Shailesh Vara in North West Cambridgeshire and Adam Afriyie in Windsor, both in 2005, that the modern era of MPs from ethnic minorities in the Conservative party really began.
Last year in 2015, Alan Mak, an MP from a Chinese background was elected to the British parliament for the first time. He is quite active in debates and questions in the Chamber of the House of Commons.
As immigrants settle in Britain, I expect more members of parliament will be drawn from the diverse ethnic and cultural heritages found in the UK. This is an exciting development, but we must not expect them all to be mouthpieces for their ethnic communities. The first job, and by far the most important, for an MP is to represent his or her constituents, from whatever race, creed or social background they come. It’s that simple.
This article was published on www.trueafrica.co on September 9, 2016.
Source: Kwesi Kwarteng via True Africa
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
The UK’s prime minister apologised as she admitted her government had made mistakes over the mini-budget last month that spooked the financial markets.
Liz Truss was speaking after new finance minister Jeremy Hunt ripped up her economic plans.
He dramatically reversed most of the tax cuts and spending proposals that his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng announced less than a month ago.
“Now I recognise we have made mistakes,” Truss, who has only been in office a little more than a month, told the BBC. “I’m sorry for those mistakes, but I fixed the mistakes. I’ve appointed a new chancellor. We have restored economic stability and fiscal discipline.”
Hunt’s swift U-turn on Truss’ mini-budget has undermined the PM’s authority and some have questioned how much longer she can remain in office.
Responding to questions about her future, Truss said she wanted to focus on “delivering for the British public”.
“We are in difficult economic times, we are in difficult international times with the war being perpetrated in Ukraine,” she added. “And now is the time to focus on delivering.”
Hunt said almost all the previous tax measures are to be reversed in a move aimed at raising £32 billion (€37 billion) a year.
A planned 1% cut in the basic rate of income tax for next April is being cancelled.
He also said the massive energy support package will not be continued beyond next April. Instead, a Treasury-led review into how best to support homes and businesses with energy bills will be launched.
The former health and foreign affairs minister has been racing to overhaul the government’s financial plans since he replaced Kwarteng, who was sacked on Friday.
Kwarteng’s unfunded tax cuts announced on 23 September sent the pound tumbling, borrowing costs soaring, and sparked a collapse in support for the ruling party.
On Sunday, Hunt and Truss held a crisis meeting at her country residence to prepare a new budget plan. Defending the government’s new direction, he acknowledged his predecessor’s mistakes and warned of “difficult decisions” to come.
Opinion polling shows Truss’ Conservatives trailing the UK’s main opposition party, Labour.
Its leader, Sir Keir Starmer, said Truss was “clinging onto power” and that her government “no longer have a mandate from the British people”.
President Akufo-Addo has stated that calls for him to sack the Finance Minister were unjustified.
Speaking on Kumasi-based OTEC FM on Monday, President Akufo-Addo said there is absolutely no basis for him to relieve the Finance Minister of his position.
There have been several calls from some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and other critics alike for the President to sack the Finance Minister as the nation grapples with harsh economic conditions.
But the President contends he cannot turn his back on the Finance Minister because he’s been excellent on the job.
However, commenting on the issue, Mr. Jackson says President Akufo-Addo should take bold decisions that will bring some economic gains to the country.
“If you are looking for a solution to the problem it is not the Minister or the person per se. It is the change of behaviour and the change of policy that will signal that you are serious. Remember that in the UK where a Ghanaian Kwasi Kwarteng was made a scapegoat and dismissed. It also followed immediately with a new appointment and a complete reversal of the policies that were planned,” he said.
“What matters to the market was not that Kwasi Kwarteng in particular was sacked, what matters to the market is that the policies were reversed. If the new person that had come and still put the same agenda nothing will have changed,” Joe Jackson told Starr News.
According to the Delex Finance Director, what can save the economic challenges of the country is slimming down the size of the government.
“For me what matters is not because a particular individual has been changed, it is that we change our behavior, we cut expenditure, we cut the size of the government. We signal to the market conclusively that we are prepared to take the hard decision. That is more important than changing a specific individual.”
Mr. Jackson also added that Ghanaians are looking at what is happening and observing will want to see positive signs from the President.
“I haven’t seen any definite signs yet, I want to see the size of the government cut down. I don’t want you to change and replace. I want you to cut the size of the government. It is not about changing individuals and replacing ministers with another. It is not about reshuffle, it is about significantly slimming down the government. Let’s not divert the argument to whether an individual should be changed or not.”
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is to fast-track many billions of pounds worth of tax and spending measures from his debt plan, announcing them a fortnight earlier than expected.
The Treasury will outline details of the plans later on Monday.
The move is the latest in a series of U-turns after policies announced in the mini-budget sparked turmoil on financial markets.
It is designed to reassure investors that the UK’s finances are sustainable.
The announcement of the £18bn U-turn on corporation tax on Friday and the firing of Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor did not calm rising UK government borrowing costs.
However, following the news that Mr Hunt was bringing a statement forward to Monday, the pound gained around to trade above $1.13. The news also saw the interest rate – or yield – on UK government bonds fall.
On Sunday, Mr Hunt told the BBC that nothing was off the table.
Announcements by lunchtime and then a statement to the House of Commons will see many billions more in reversals of policy, to plug a hole in borrowing forecasts worth tens of billions.
“The chancellor will make a statement later today, bringing forward measures from the Medium-Term Fiscal Plan that will support fiscal sustainability,” a Treasury spokesman said.
The cut to National Insurance is expected to survive, as it has already very nearly passed through Parliament.
More clarity on the extent of savings in public sector spending could also be on the cards.
The Treasury has confirmed that the measures brought forward from the debt plan “will support fiscal sustainability”.
There have been further conversations between the chancellor and the prime minister. Mr Hunt also met the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey and the head of the Debt Management Office, which has to sell Britain’s debt, to brief them on his plans.
Monday’s moves, which could amount to a significant fiscal event in and of itself, are designed to reinject market confidence.
The aftermath of Mr Kwarteng’s mini-budget announcements on 23 September saw the pound slump to a record low of $1.03 and the cost of government borrowing rise sharply.
Analysts welcomed the news of an announcement from Mr Hunt but said the figures would come under close scrutiny.
“I think you’ll see a positive reaction to the statement, assuming that the math adds up a bit more than it did before,” Shanti Kelemen, chief investment officer at M&G Wealth, told the BBC.
The debt plan will still be published in a fortnight’s time on 31 October, alongside an official forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The Finance Minister has extended well wishes to the former Chancellor of the Exchequer in the United Kingdom, Kwasi Kwarteng, after his removal.
Ken Ofori-Addo said he did not see this coming and shares in the pain of the Ghanaian-born UK politician.
“The pain or sadness is that he is a Ghanaian reaching almost the highest level, Chancellor of the Exchequer,” he said in an interview with Accra-based TV3.
Mr Kwarteng was sacked by the UK Prime Minister after less than six weeks on the job as the government’s huge tax cuts triggered a financial market crisis.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta says he fèels sad about the sacking of Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer. pic.twitter.com/Sv3gI4jVyP
His removal made him Britain’s shortest-serving chancellor since 1970. He was succeeded by Jeremy Hunt as the European nation grapples with a cost-of-living crisis.
Ken Ofori-Atta who was in Mr Kwarteng’s company just last week intimated that even though they have not spoken since his removal, he has sent an email.
“I am always very optimistic, if one is really doing things in truth there might be some waves but the Lord will see him through. I was surprised at what happened. I have sent an email to him, I told him the Lord knows best,” he said in Washington DC.’
Amid a free-falling cedi, a rising cost of living, and skyrocketing fuel prices, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is at the doors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to prevent a full-blown economic turmoil.
The decision by Jeremy Hunt not to amend the energy price guarantee between now and April next year is incredibly welcome” according to Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS).
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Emmerson said when the government first announced the energy price guarantee he was “sympathetic” to the idea that the policy might be needed for this winter, but “it always looked rather odd” that the country was committing to it for two years.
Mr Emmerson said: “I’m very pleased to see that the government is now taking an approach saying, well, yes, this big scheme will be in place this winter. We can’t do better than that in the short run.
“But it’s now reopening the idea that we can design something that will be cheaper for the taxpayer, hopefully, targeted towards those who really need it, but also preserves incentives that people have to cut back on their energy use for the following winter.”
Mr Emmerson went on to say the chancellor’s medium-term fiscal plan was a “very big tax rising announcement”.
“A week ago it looked very difficult. We were talking about how would you do this without any tax rises because that was clearly a steer from Liz Truss and the then chancellor,” he said.
“And it looked like you’d have to make some incredibly difficult decisions around working age, welfare, capital spending, and around day-to-day spending on public services.
“Now, there may well still be a need to squeeze spending, given the chancellor’s tax announcement today.
“We’re not necessarily going to be not paying for public services going forward, but it might be the kind of more credible, more deliverable end of the scale rather than what we were looking at just a few days earlier.”
On Monday,the pound gained and government borrowing costs fell as investors welcomed the news that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is speeding up tax and spending cuts.
In morning trading, sterling gained 1% against the dollar, trading around $1.13.
The interest rate – or yield – on UK government bonds fell as a result of the announcement.
The drop in yields suggests financial markets are welcoming the prospect of changes to economic plans.
Monday is the first time the UK government bond market has reopened since the Bank of England’s emergency support programme ended on Friday.
On Friday, Prime Minister Liz Truss sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor and said the mini-budget “went further and faster than markets were expecting”.
The mini-budget was blamed for causing turmoil in the financial markets. The aftermath of Mr Kwarteng’s announcements on 23 September saw the pound slumped to a record low of $1.03 and the cost of government borrowing rise sharply.
“The chancellor will make a statement later today, bringing forward measures from the Medium-Term Fiscal Plan that will support fiscal sustainability,” a Treasury spokesman said.
Mr Hunt is expected to fast-track many billions of pounds worth of tax and spending measures from his debt plan, announcing them a fortnight earlier than expected.
It is the latest of a series of U-turns on policies announced in the mini-budget.
The announcement of the £18bn U-turn on corporation tax on Friday and the firing of Mr Kwarteng did not appear to reassure investors, with UK government borrowing costs climbing on Friday afternoon.
Investors warned that whatever Mr Hunt announces will need to “add up”.
“I think you’ll see a positive reaction to the statement, assuming that the math adds up a bit more than it did before,” Shanti Kelemen, chief investment officer at M&G Wealth, told the BBC.
“What we saw on Friday, as we had markets rise in the lead up to the news that Kwarteng was resigning, but then as soon as it happened, we had a sell-off afterwards.
“So I think it’ll be important that the actual content of what’s being delivered adds up and has some more meat and numbers behind it than what we’ve seen previously.”
The Bank of England stepped in to stabilize the financial markets following the mini-budget, announcing an emergency bond-buying scheme.
Ms Kelemen said that the latest moves from the chancellor showed he acknowledged the government’s role in reassuring the markets.
“They’ve recognized that the uncertainty is damaging the economy,” she said.
“You also see the Bank of England won’t be supporting markets this week. So I think it shows the government is taking a bit more responsibility rather than relying on the Bank of England to buy all the debt.”
The shift in the government’s economic policies and market turmoil in recent weeks has led to Goldman Sachs downgrading its forecasts for UK economic growth.
The investment bank revised its 2023 UK economic output forecast from a 0.4% drop to a 1% contraction.
Goldman said it expected a “more significant recession in the UK” in part due to “significantly tighter financial conditions” and the planned higher corporation tax rate from next April.
Consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics said the prime minister’s decision to appoint Mr Hunt as chancellorhad “done little to shrink the risk premium embedded in UK assets”.
“Households and businesses, therefore, are still facing a huge increase in their borrowing costs,” their analysts said.
They added the forthcoming real-term reduction in government spending looked “set to be bigger than in the 2010s”.
Prime Minister Liz Trusshas released a comment piece she wrote for The Sun on Sunday, in which she calls it a “wrench” that “my buddy Kwasi Kwarteng has left government.”
She stressed on Twitter that she will always “act in the national interest, assisting people and businesses across our country.”
Ms Truss added: “We are going to do things differently, charting a new course for growth – it remains the core mission of this government.”
I will always act in the national interest, supporting families and businesses across our country.
We are going to do things differently, charting a new course for growth – it remains the core mission of this government👇https://t.co/CYWRRz27dn
The actions Kwarteng made during the presentation of the UK mini-budget, which caused some financial turmoil and outrage from Tory MPs, were a major factor in his removal.
At a news conference, British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced a reversal of some important initiatives and the cancellation of the proposed increase in corporation tax from 19 to 25 percent.
Kwasi Kwarteng, 47, took over as head of the British Treasury in September 2022, after Prime Minister, Liz Truss, took over. He had the responsibility of trying to pull the UK out of a serious cost-of-living crisis without plunging the public finances into the abyss.
He took over from Nadhim Zahawi, an Iraqi-born Kurd, who himself succeeded Rishi Sunak, of Indian origin, and Sajid Javid, with Pakistani roots, embodying a more inclusive face of the Conservative party.
Iain Macleod was a British Conservative politician and government minister. He entered Parliament as an MP in 1950.
MacLeod as health minister and minister for Labour, before overseeing the independence of African countries from British rule as secretary of state for the colonies under Harold Macmillan in the early 60s.
He refused to serve in the government of Harold Macmillan’s successor, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, instead joining The Spectator as editor.
Mr Macleod returned to government after being appointed chancellor by Edward Heath on 20 June 1970 following an unexpected Conservative election victory. He served for a total of 30 days as Chancellor.
Despite being in pain, he made his sole major speech on the economy as chancellor five days later, lamenting high levels of inflation and unemployment.
Mr Macleod was rushed to the hospital later the same day with a pelvic diverticulum, a condition affecting the digestive system.
He was discharged 11 days later, on 20 July, only to suffer a heart attack inside 11 Downing Street, where he died at 11.35 pm.
Following repercussions from a mini-budget delivered last month, Kwasi Kwarteng, Chancellor of the Exchequer and close supporter of the Prime Minister, was removed after six weeks in office.
The budget has now prompted market volatility and a rebellion among UK Conservative parliamentary members.
Kwarteng reportedly returned to No. 10 Downing Street where he received official notice of his dismissal after cutting short his trip to the United States of America where he had been attending the IMF/World Bank meetings.
In a statement released after his firing, the British-born Ghanaian admitted that even before taking up the job, he knew he could not tow the lines of those before him, thereby needing to adopt more drastic approaches.
Shortly after Kwasi Kwarteng was fired, a new candidate was appointed in the person on Jeremy Hunt to serve as UK Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Hunt is a known figure in the UK Conservative Party and has previously served as health secretary and foreign secretary.
He has on two occasions contested the Conservative party leadership slot where he lost both times.
Ahead of Liz Truss’ selection to lead the party, Jeremy Hunt was a keen supporter of former chancellor Rishi Sunak over Liz Truss.
Jeremy Hunt is coming to the position as UK Chancellor of Exchequer at a time when the country is facing high inflationary pressures, tumbling currency, rising cost of living and among others.
About Jeremy Hunt
According to the BBC, Jeremy Hunt is a 55-year-old Conservative Member of the UK parliament. Prior to his political life, he grew up in Surrey town of Godalming in the United Kingdom.
He attended Charterhouse School, where he was the head boy who was widely known for his love of cross-country running.
He later attended the prestigious Oxford University where some say his political career began. Hunt during his journey in the University served as president of the Conservative Association.
Prior to being elected to parliament in 2005, Jeremy had a career as an English teacher in Japan and as an entrepreneur where he co-founded the Hotcourses education publisher.
In 2017, the Hotcourses was sold to an investor which earned Hunt a reported net profit of £14 million, making him one of the richest politicians in the UK.
From 2005 to 2007, Jeremy Hunt became the shadow minister for persons with disability. This was somewhat his reward for supporting former UK prime minister, David Cameron.
In 2010, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government was formed where Jeremy Hunt served in cabinet as secretary of state for culture, Olympics, media and sport.
He also played a pivotal role in the 2012 London Olympics.
However, in politics, there is never a trade-off without scandal as calls grew in 2012 for Jeremy Hunt to resign over his alleged involvement in the BSkyB takeover bid.
It was alleged that Hunt had close contacts with the media empire of controversial mogul Rupert Murdoch but he survived the saga and was appointed health secretary in 2012.
His tenure as the health secretary came at a time when the NHS was facing financial turmoil and challenges.
The discussion, which was held in conjunction with the IMF/World Bank 2022 annual meeting, focused on finding solutions to the world economy’s high food and energy costs, currency instability, and inflationary pressures.
The IMF/World Bank 2022 annual conference will serve as a forum to address important areas where the international community and global financial organizations like the IMF and World Bank Group should increase their support for developing nations.
This forum comes against the backdrop of a confluence of external shocks – in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic, the continuing consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war and deepening concern about the imminent impact of climate change.
Mr. Ofori-Atta told the G-24 Ministers and Governors meeting that, ”there is the need to put a spotlight on the economic consequences of climate change, particularly as it relates to developing countries who are the least contributors to climate change.”
Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta met with UK Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng at the G-7 finance ministers and African finance ministers meeting in Washington DC, US ahead of Mr. Kwarteng’s removal from Office as Cabinent Minister.
After Kwasi Kwarteng was ousted as chancellor on Friday, the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford stated Tory prime leaders since 2010 have “collectively got us into this mess.”
Mr Blackford branded the situation a “shambles” and called for a general election after Liz Truss sacked Mr Kwarteng and parachuted former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt into Number 11 in his place.
“We’ve really seen the credibility for financial competence, for the financial management of this government really put to bed,” he told the BBC.
“Over the last few years, we’ve gone from Cameron, we’ve had Theresa May, we’ve had Boris Johnson, we’ve now had the shambles of Liz Truss.
“None of these prime ministers have acted in the interests of the people of Scotland and collectively they have got us into this mess. It’s not another Tory prime minister that we need. We need away from Westminster, we need independence.”
Mr Blackford joined Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s calls for a general election, saying there had been a “whole series” of “shambolic” Tory governments.
Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood has hailed Jeremy Hunt’s appointment as chancellor as a “wise inclusion.”
The influential Tory MP appears to have regained his Conservative whip, tweeting that he’s “off the… naughty step & back in Pty.”
Ellwood had the whip withdrawn – basically meaning he was kicked out of the parliamentary party while keeping his seat – after missing a vote of confidence in Boris Johnson’s government in July.
At the time, he said he’d been unable to return from a meeting overseas.
Just three weeks after the phrase was coined, so-called Trussonomics is no more.
Liz Truss’s ambitious plan for a high-growth, high-wage, low-tax economy didn’t even get off the launch pad. The new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt concedes that mistakes were made in how it was delivered.
In a remarkably frank interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, he admitted there would be difficult decisions ahead.
Some taxes would now go up, he said, and others may not come down as quickly as people want.
Spending will not rise as fast as previously planned. Hunt will now ask all government departments to look for efficiency savings – and said even health and defence are not immune.
He also admitted that “flying blind” was another big error. That was a reference to the failure of his predecessor to submit his plan to be stress-tested by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to make sure the sums added up.
The reaction from the business world has been mixed. One investment fund manager described the reversal in policy as a turning point and described Jeremy Hunt as someone the markets could trust.
But the chairman of supermarket giant Asda, Lord Stuart Rose, described Liz Truss as a “busted flush”, who in his view cannot bring stability to the economy.
The judgment from the markets will come when they re-open at 08:00 on Monday. It will be the first working day since the Bank of England stopped buying government bonds to try and stabilise the pension market. The price of government borrowing was already creeping up again at close-of-play on Friday.
Jeremy Hunt said he had been given a clean slate to re-work the mini-budget. He now has two weeks to make the figures work before delivering his economic plan on 31 October.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
Last night, after news emerged that Kwasi Kwarteng had been sacked as chancellor, several cabinet members spoke up in support of the prime minister.
Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg
The prime minister has acted decisively to provide the economic stability our country needs.
As a government, we must now get on and deliver the pro-growth reforms that will lay the foundations for our future prosperity.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Nadhim Zahawi
It’s time to get Britain moving. We are determined to grow the economy, eliminate the COVID backlog and protect people from Putin’s energy warfare. With Liz Truss, Jeremy Hunt and the rest of the team, we will do all of that and more.
Health Secretary Therese Coffey
The PM is right to act now to ensure our country’s economic stability – key for families and businesses – and reassure the markets of our fiscal discipline, especially in light of the worsening global economic conditions with Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch
To say it’s been a difficult day would be an understatement. We knew the scale of the challenge this autumn given multiple global headwinds would be unprecedented. Our prime minister is working flat out to get the country through these turbulent times. She has my full support.
Kwarteng was fired after presenting a mini-budget that caused financial instability and outrage among Conservative Party lawmakers.
On September 23, Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled a staggering £45 billion in tax cuts together with a plan to reduce energy costs that is expected to cost £60 billion over the following six months.
This, according to various media reportage was a huge departure from the fiscal policy of the Johnson government, which had planned tax rises to pay for health and social care and to manage the post-Covid deficit.
Kwarteng claimed his ambitious plans would drive growth and reduce inflation. The financial markets disagreed: in the days after his announcement, lenders pulled mortgage packages, the pound hit a record low against the dollar, and the Bank of England started buying bonds at ‘an urgent pace’ to calm the markets and stop pension funds going bust.
In a high-risk strategy designed to revive Britain’s stagnant economy, the British of Ghanaian descent announced more than £400bn of extra borrowing over the coming years to fund the biggest giveaway since Tony Barber’s ill-fated 1972 budget.
The Guardian reported that the Conservative MP said tax cuts worth more than £55,000 annually to someone earning £1m a year were part of a new direction for the economy and were designed to help boost growth to 2.5% a year. Some Labour MPs described them as a “class war”.
The Treasury admitted there were no forecasts for the impact of the measures on growth and the gamble received a hostile reception not just from the markets and opposition politicians, but from economic think tanks and many Tory MPs, some of whom were aghast.
Just after news broke that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, has been dismissed by the United Kingdom Prime Minister, Liz Truss, he wrote to accept his fate.
According to him, he accepted the position which he occupied for 38 days in full knowledge that the situation the country faced was incredibly difficult, with rising global interest rates and energy prices.
He said in a statement hours after his dismissal that, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, following the status quo was simply not an option.
“For too long this country has been dogged by low growth rates and high taxation – that must still change if this country is to succeed,” Kwarteng’s statement read in parts.
Dear Prime Minister,
You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted. When you asked me to serve as your Chancellor, I did so in full knowledge that the situation we faced was incredibly difficult, with rising global interest rates and energy prices. However, your vision of optimism, growth and change was right.
As I have said many times in the past weeks, following the status quo was simply not an option. For too long this country has been dogged by low growth rates and high taxation – that must still change if this country is to succeed.
The economic environment has changed rapidly since we set out the Growth Plan on 23 September. In response, together with the Bank of England and excellent officials at the Treasury we have responded to those events, and I commend my officials for their dedication.
It is important now as we move forward to emphasise your government’s commitment to fiscal discipline. The Medium-Term Fiscal Plan is crucial to this end, and I look forward to supporting you and my successor to achieve that from the backbenches.
We have been colleagues and friends for many years. In that time, I have seen your dedication and determination. I believe your vision is the right one. It has been an honour to serve as your first Chancellor.
Your success is this country’s success and I wish you well.
Prime Minister Liz Truss has expressed sadness at losing her longtime friend and colleague, Kwasi Kwarteng, from her ministry after dismissing him following a mini-budget presentation.
They both share the same vision for the UK and the same steadfast belief in the prosperity of the country, she said, adding that her fired appointee was “a long-standing friend and colleague.”
Thank you for your letter. As a long-standing friend and colleague, I am deeply sorry to lose you from the Government. We share the same vision for our country and the same firm conviction to go for growth.
You have been Chancellor in extraordinarily challenging times in the face of severe global headwinds.
You have set in train an ambitious set of supply-side reforms that this Government will proudly take forward. These include new investment zones to unleash the potential of parts of our country that have been held back for too long and the removal of EU regulations to help British businesses succeed in the global economy.
I deeply respect the decision you have taken today. You have put the national interest first.
Thank you for your service to this country and your huge friendship and support. I have no doubt you will continue to make a major contribution to public life in the years ahead.
Leading member of the New Patriotic Party, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has expressed optimism that Kwasi Kwarteng, the dismissed UK Chancellor of the Exchequer will rise again.
The British-born politician of Ghanaian parentage was on Friday, October 14, relieved from his post by the British Prime Minister, Liz Truss.
The BBC confirmed the news and stated that the decision was taken following fallouts from his mini-budget which sparked financial turmoil in the markets and caused a revolt among Conservative MPs in the UK.
Reacting to the news, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko tweeted: “He made history as UK’s first black finance minister. Little did we know that he was also to make history as the shortest on the job. Iain Macleod who lasted 30 days died on the job as chancellor of the Exchequer on 20 June 1970. Kwasi Kwarteng will rise again because he is able.”
Gabby is a known admirer of Kwarteng, having projected months back that the latter will one day rise to become the Prime Minister of the UK.
Kwarteng’s era as Chancellor of the Exchequer lasted six weeks.
His appointment came at a time the country was facing a high cost of living, and public sector layoffs, among others.
Kwasi Kwarteng after his appointment became the first black person to hold the position.
He has since accepted the dismissal in a letter posted on Twitter. “You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted,” the first line of his letter to PM Truss read.
Background
Kwasi Kwarteng, 47, took over as head of the British Treasury in September 2022, after new UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss, took over; with the responsibility of trying to pull the UK out of a serious cost-of-living crisis without plunging the public finances into the abyss.
He took over from Nadhim Zahawi, an Iraqi-born Kurd, who himself succeeded Rishi Sunak, of Indian origin, and Sajid Javid, with Pakistani roots, embodying a more inclusive face of the Conservative party.
His sack makes him the second shortest-serving UK chancellor on record.
The shortest serving chancellor, Iain Macleod, according to the BBC, died of a heart attack 30 days after taking the job in 1970.
Since 2019, the UK has had four chancellors, including Nadhim Zahawi who served the third shortest tenure with 63 days during a short-lived reshuffle under Boris Johnson, and Sajid Javid who served 204 days – the fourth shortest tenure on record.
