Atik Mohammed has slammed the Government of Ghana over reports that it has diverted $250 million of the $1 billion Eurobond issued to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) to private account in a private commercial bank.
To the General Secretary of the People's National Convention (PNC), government action does not make economic sense.
He wondered how government could issue the Eurobond cash to GIIF and partly to UBA when, to him, the two institutions are not operational.
“Economically, it doesn’t make sense. Financially, it is bogus," he said on Peace FM's Kokrokoo.
The Vice-Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, last week during a lecture at the Accra Polytechnic accused the current administration of diverting the amount into a private account in a private bank to bolster election campaigns ahead of the November 7 polls.
He also disclosed that the government has "in a shocking move turned around to borrow back that amount through treasury bills, thus, paying interests again on the same money to the private bank".
“I want to provide one example of the recklessness and incompetence I am talking about. Ghana borrowed US$1 billion through a Eurobond issue in 2015. Government allocated US$250 million of this borrowed funds to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF). This Fund is not yet operational. These Funds were initially deposited at Bank of Ghana where they should be. Notwithstanding the fact that the GIIF is not operational and there are no projects for the GIIF to implement now, the Government unbelievably transferred the $250 million from the Bank of Ghana to GIIF’s account at a private Bank. With no project to execute, These Funds have now been lent to government through the purchase of treasury bills! This is unbelievable", he stated.
But the Finance Minister, at a news conference to respond to Dr Bawumia’s claims, described the latter's assertions as "factually wrong, technically deficient and gives a wrong impression to both Ghanaian and international investors and development partners".
He pointed out that once there was an Acting Chief Executive and a Board in place, “government acted within the law”.
“The US$250 million seed money to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) lodged by the Board with a commercial bank is safe and has already started bearing interest to the idle fund,
But contributing to a panel discussion on Thursday'sKokrokoo show, the PNC General Secretary noted that "merely having an Acting MD and a Board doesn't mean the fund is operational. So, the truth and in fact as admitted by the Minister, the fund is yet to take off which means that if you deposit money there; the money will be idle."
To him, "once you award a project, it becomes part of your expenditure. But when this money came, instead of the government that has desperate need for this money to finance infrastructure projects, decided and strangely so that we should put this money into the account of GIIF which is yet to start operations. And that is the question and that is what confirms the fact as stated by Dr. Bawumia that it is true the $250 million indeed was taken from the Bank of Ghana and deposited in the account of GIIF."
Atik Mohammed further stated that the government decision is reckless.
He asked how the government finalized on the choice of bank and the kind of investment being made by the government.
He told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that he has been searching for the "slightest common sense that could make the government do what the government has done . . . absolutely reckless.
“We are getting crazy as a country. This is State money.” |
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