Former Chair of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah has described the five-member committee announced by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to engage stakeholders on Ghana’s debt management, as a joke.
He said the debt situation is a government matter, not private.
He further questioned whether the team members can handle the legalities of the situation at hand.
Speaking in an interview with TV3’s Paa Kwesi Asare on Friday October 21, the former lawmaker for New Juabeng South said “That committee is a joke. I borrow money from you or you lend money to me, I cannot pay and you are asking a third party to come and engage me, for what?
“You owe me, you have to sit down with me upfront, come clean and tell me how we are going to manage the situation, all those committee members, did I lend money to them?
“Do they know about the forex reserves that the country has? Do they know the debt position? Can they handle the legalities of all these matters, what is this.
“This is a government matter, it is not a private matter, you owe money to people, did I lend money to these committee members? It is a joke.”
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta announced the creation of the committee at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday September 28.
He said the committee will lead extensive stakeholder engagements across all the key segments of the financial sector – banking, asset, management, pensions, and insurance.
“They will immediately get to work to engage key stakeholders in the financial services sector, additional to ongoing engagements with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), social partners (labour unions, employers, and FBOs), academia, industry professionals, and the leadership of Parliament,” he said.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana