Bank of Ghana’s response is a cover-up – Minority

The Minority in Parliament on Wednesday said the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) response to the Caucus’s alleged printing of new currency is a cover-up.

At a presser in Parliament disproving the central bank’s rejoinder on the matter, the Minority said the Bank of Ghana needed to “credit Ghanaians with some intelligence.”

“We expect the BoG to do the honourable thing by admitting to their transgressions and asserting their independence, as they are guaranteed under Ghanaian law,” Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee said.

Dr Forson Monday accused the Governor of BoG of printing more currency for the country without approval from Parliament.

However, the BoG in a rejoinder on Tuesday said the amount of GH¢22.04 claimed to have been printed represented net claims on Government, and not new currency printed to support the Government’s budget.

It said: “These claims include stocks and bonds sold by commercial banks to it under repurchase agreements, IMF SDR allocation disbursed to the government, draw-down of the government’s deposits held with the Bank of Ghana and negative balance on the government’s account with the Bank of Ghana.”

Meanwhile, the Minority had singled out the BoG’s claim, noting that GH¢6.2 billion out of the GH¢22billion reflected its on-lending of IMF SDR resources.

“In stark contrast, the Minister for Finance’s Mid-Year Review reports at the page in an issue that there was no such on-lending.

“Indeed, there was zero on-lending, contrary to the projected GH¢4.53billion,” Dr Forson said.

According to the Minority spokesperson on Finance, the claim by the BoG that some GH¢2.8 billion out of the GH¢22billion was zero on-lending, was contrary to the projected GH¢4.53billion.

He told the Press that the claim by the BoG that some GH¢2.8 billion out of the GH¢22billion was a drawdown from the government’s deposit for GETFund, DACF and NHIF was untrue.

“This cannot be factual considering that Appendix 2C on page 99 of the Finance Minister’s Mid-Year Review reports that all those statutory payments had long been released by the Ministry of Finance and spent by GETFund, DACF and NHIF,” Dr Forson said.

Source: GNA