An Economist and Data Scientist, Dr. Yaw Morde has said the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is a potential candidate for the Nsawam Prison after cooking figures in his address to Parliament on Wednesday, 23 June 2022.
According to him, the Finance Minister deliberately cooked the figures he presented to the House of Parliament to “understate revenues and bloat expenditure”.
In an interview with Korku Lumor on Class FM’s 5o5 News, Wednesday, 22 June 2022, the Mr Morde indicated: “If we compare ourselves to our peers, you (will) see that (with) the 1 billion we got, some countries did not get it. The European Union, Germany alone gave us 25 million Euros, we got a lot of revenue but in 2020 our GDP was less than 1 percent.”
“So the question is, how did we use the money?,” he quizzed.
“We have misused the money, now come and account, you have understated your revenue and you have increased your expenditure just to confuse the people. This Finance Minister is a potential candidate for Nsawam.” – He added
Dr Morde reiterated that last year, there were incessant calls for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to reshuffle the Finance Minister because “he has become a serious threat to national security”.
“They have borrowed over GHS259 billion in the space of six years, every single amount borrowed, Ken Ofori-Atta has a percentage as a loan consultant or a debt consultant and Ghanaians have to be very worried. This Finance Minister has mismanaged the economy, our inflation exploded to over 25 percent, our exchange rate is deteriorating”, Dr Morde stressed.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta detailed on the floor of Parliament that, government disbursed an amount of GHS600 million in 2020 for the construction of hospitals under the Agenda 111 initiative across the country.
However, Ranking Member on the Finance Committee in Parliament, Dr Cassiel Atto Forson and Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, speaking in Parliament, after the Minister’s briefing, touched on concerns over inconsistencies and lies in the statement he (Ofori Atta) presented.
Meanwhile, Speaker of Parliament Alban S.K Bagbin has instructed the Finance and Health Committees in Parliament to probe into the Total Receipts of COVID-19 Expenditure presented by the Finance Minister.
The committees have till the maiden week of October to present their reports for scrutiny.
By Lawrence Odoom
