A leading member of the governing new Patriotic Party (NPP) Gabby Otchere-Darko has reacted to calls made by Former President John Dramani Mahama that Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta should be sacked.
Gabby said even when calls were made to Mr Mahama when he was in office to sack his Finance Minister Seth Terkper for going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2014/15 when there was no major crisis, he stuck by him.
“We remember so well, Sir, agitations within NDC for you to sack Seth Terkper, your finance minister.
“You stuck by him, though Ghanaians were perplexed why IMF in 2014/15, with all the new additional revenues from oil, and no global crisis like now,” Gabby tweeted on Saturday July 2.
Mr Mahama has said the Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia must be removed as head of the Economic Management Team (EMT) because he has failed.
He also said that the Mr Ofori-Atta has supervised disastrous collapse of the economy therefore cannot and should not be part of the team of negotiators for the engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In a statement welcoming the decision by the Akufo-Ado administration to head to the IMF, Mr Mahama said on Saturday July 2 that “The Finance Minister who has supervised the disastrous collapse of the economy cannot and should not be part of the team of negotiators. He has lost credibility and the trust and confidence of stakeholders in our economy. President Akufo-Addo must take a bold decision to replace his finance minister immediately with a more assured and competent person who is willing and able to work tirelessly to turn our almost hopeless situation around.
‘In addition, given his obvious failures, the Vice President must be relieved of his responsibility as Chair of the Economic Management Team to enable the President to reconstitute the team. We must draw useful lessons from this episode and avoid cheap politicking with the economy; that can only yield the disastrous outcomes that have brought us here,” Mr Mahama said in a Facebook post on Saturday July 2.
President Akufo-Addo gave the instruction to Mr Ofori-Atta to commence the engagements with the IMF on Friday July 1 following a telephone conversation between the President and the IMF Managing Director, Miss Kristalina Georgieva, conveying Ghana’s decision to engage with the Fund.
The Ministry of Information announced this in a statement on Friday July 1.
A Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr John Kumah said an IMF programme would help the country to come out from the economic challenges faster.
He said the government hopes that the programme will benefit the country.
“Our objective as government is to restore confidence in the economy and rebound it from the difficulty, from the challenges, not only in Ghana but almost all economies around the world.
“We believe that where we stand now, an IMF intervention will help us come out quicker than we could. We hope that it will benefit the country,” he told TV3’s Komla Adom on the mid day news on Friday July 1.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana
