The Minority in Parliament has shot down attempts by the Chairman of the Finance Committee Kwaku Kwarteng to amend his Committee’s report in relation to Ghana’s international reserves.
Report of the $750 million Loan Facility Agreement between the government and AfreximBank, which was approved by the House earlier this week stated the Bank of Ghana (BoG) reserves declined from US$9.7 billion to US$3 billion.
Chairman of the Committee, however, sought to amend the report by way of a statement on Friday, July 22, which was resisted by the Minority.
Hon. Kwaku Kwarteng described the figures in the report as an error and an unfortunate oversight.
“We reported that the international reserves of the Bank of Ghana had declined from US$9 billion to US$ 3 billion. Mr Speaker, this was an error, it was an unfortunate oversight.”
“According to the Bank of Ghana, the Gross International Reserves of the country was US$9.70 billion at the close of December 2021. This declined to US7.68 billion at the close of June 2022,” he said.
Ranking member of the Committee, Cassiel Ato Forson, however, argued the figures captured in the Committee Report that was subsequently approved by the House were accurate and stressed the Minister of Finance gave that detail during a meeting with the Committee and duly recorded by the clerks and signed by the Chairman.
The Minister’s statement, he said, confirmed the reserve has dropped to $3 billion from $9 billion.
“The clerks of the Committee recorded this in the Committee’s report, and it was only the chairman who signed on behalf of the committee.”
“So is the Chairman telling us that he did not take notice of that statement after he signed and presented same to us. We cannot accept that he should use a statement to amend the committee’s report; that we cannot accept.”
According to him, though Article 184 of the 1992 Constitution makes it imperative for the Bank of Ghana to submit foreign exchange reserves position to the Finance Committee for audit and report, this provision has been breached.
BoG, he said, has kept this information away from Parliament and wondered what the government is hiding.
Mr. Ato Forson noted that the Minority supported the $750 million loan agreement based on the information of the international reserves the Minister provided and warned if that was an error his side will withdraw its support for the loan.
Mr. Isaac Adongo, Deputy Ranking of the Committee, argued the summary of the economic and financial data of the state cannot be released because it will expose data gymnastics at the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana.
He said, “The governor has his own data and the Finance Minister has his own data. So which one would we believe and which one should the investor community believe?”
According to him, the crux of the matter is the Finance Ministry has borrowed a lot but does not have the reserves for its lenders to exit the market with their money and has therefore resorted to lying.
The situation, he said, confirms Ken Ofori- Atta is not fit for purpose in the Ministry and stressed he should walk away and allow those who can to do the work.
Earlier, Majority leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu had appealed to the House to ignore the statement of the Finance Committee chairman because the Minister will be presenting the mid-year budget review on Monday and will be expected to make the necessary corrections.