Pensioner bondholders have indicated they will soon drag the government to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) over its lackadaisical posture towards paying their outstanding coupons and interest on their principal.
A meeting held between them and the government on Thursday, June 8, 2023, ended inconclusively as they accused the government of failing to honour agreed timelines.
The pensioner bondholders insist that overly delayed payments must attract additional interest.
They have served notice to return to their picketing at the Finance Ministry on Friday, June 9, 2023 if they do not receive notification of payment by the close of the day, Thursday, June 8, 2023.
“We’ve said that if government is paying we will not be picketing but as of yesterday we have not seen any alert that the money is being paid. The Deputy Minister says the Bank of Ghana says it has instructed for money to be sent to the banks but no bank has so far told any client that it has received money and is paying. So after the meeting, we’ll continue with our picketing and if we don’t receive an alert this evening we’ll continue with our picketing tomorrow.
“Government also has said that it has instructed Accountant General to prioritize payment of subsequent coupons and we are hoping that they will do that. That also if it doesn’t come the way it should come, our picketing will continue,” Dr. Adu Anane Antwi, Convener of the Pensioner Bondholders Forum said in an interview with Starr FM Thursday.
He advised that if the government wants to succeed with its proposal, it should put together a proposal that says it is going to buy back the pensioner bonds at principal plus interest.
“We have said if government wants to buy us back, it should buy us at principal plus interest but we cannot force the government to do that. We will allow government to brink whatever proposal it wants to submit. It will be for us to decide whether we will accept the proposal or not. We can only advise government that if it wants to succeed with the proposal it is bringing, then it should bring a proposal which says it is going to buy us back at principal plus interest just as it did when it was converting the old bonds into new bonds.”