The Member of Parliament for the Asawase Constituency Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak says the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta’s continuous stay in office will not auger well for the country.
Defending the Minority’s motion calling for a vote of censure against Ofori-Atta on Thursday, Muntaka who is also the Minority Chief Whip said: “What are we waiting to see before we will now all believe that the time for him [Ofori-Atta] to exit is now? Our failure to remove the Finance Minister will continue to hurt each and every one of us. It will continue to hurt our constituents. It will continue to hurt the economy, it will continue to hurt businesses.”
Muntaka argued that the Finance Minister must be made to go because he hasn’t lived up to expectations and has instead plunged the economy into a ditch.
“This is a man that has moved our debt from an average of GH¢120 billion to GH¢500 billion. This is a Finance Minister that has moved our debt servicing from GH¢14.1 billion in 2016 to GH¢48 billion in 2022. This is a Finance Minister that has moved our wage bill from approximately GH¢14.4 billion in 2016 to GH¢37 billion in 2022,” he stressed.
He went on to accuse the Finance Minister of consistently massaging economic figures to the House and Ghanaians at large.
He alleged that this is a man “who is claiming that all our suffering is a result of Covid-19, this is a Minister who took advantage of the Covid-19 situation and got in excess of GH¢22 billion that was supposed to support the economy.
“In 2019, he reported to the House that the fiscal deficit was 3.9% of GDP and when he had to report to the World Bank, the actual was 7.1% of GDP. In 2022, he reported to the House that the fiscal deficit was 11.7% when he was confronted to report the truth, the actual figure was 17.2%.”
He further charged his fellow legislators to ensure the Financial Minister is chased out of office in order to save the economy and local businesses.
The motion for the vote of censure was moved on Thursday, but the Speaker instead set up an 8-member ad-hoc committee to probe the allegations raised against the Finance Minister in the Minority’s motion.