The Minority in Parliament has refuted claims by some members of the Majority that the recent approval of loans by Parliament was a unanimous decision by the House.
The Minority group insists it was opposed to the loans and demonstrated the same during debate on the floor of the House.
Parliament on Tuesday 2nd May, 2023 approved an amount of $150 million dollars for the financing of the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme phase 2 under the Multi-phase programmatic approach.
The House also approved an on-lending agreement between the government and the Development Bank Ghana for an amount of £170 million Euros to support the establishment of a financially sustainable development Bank.
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It also approved a loan agreement between the government of Ghana and the World Bank for an amount of $200 million to finance the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project.
New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Dormaa East, Paul Twum Barimah, however, claimed the Minority supported the approval of the loan agreements by the House on that day.
He said, “So far as we know, we all support the loans. It was by voice vote, did you see anyone on his feet to question the loans? Nobody did that, not even their leadership or any member and if you read the report it was a unanimous report.”
In a sharp rebuttal to the claim, Minority Chief Whip and MP for Adaklu, Governs Kwame Agbodza, described the comments by his colleague on the Majority side as dishonest and inaccurate.
The Minority, he said, was implacably opposed to these loans coming at a time the nation has defaulted on both domestic and external debt servicing and is struggling to secure an IMF program due to our debt overhang.
According to him, the Minority members indeed took turns to express their opposition and still stand firmly in their conviction that only an irresponsible and unpatriotic Majority Group will support any additional borrowing of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government that has defaulted on our debt repayments.”
In a post on Twitter, he said, “Our attention has been drawn to a mischievous publication by various news portals bearing the caption ‘NDC MPs Supported Approval of Recent Loans’ and attributed to the NPP MP for Dormaa East Constituency, Hon. Paul Apreku Twum-Barimah.”
“The Minority Caucus strongly debunks his claims and takes a serious view of such dishonest and desperate statements coming from an NPP MP who was part of the unpatriotic Majority group that took the decision to railroad these loans despite strong opposition from us.”
“Let it be placed on record that the Minority was implacably opposed to these loans coming at a time our nation has defaulted on both domestic and external debt servicing and is struggling to secure an IMF program due to our debt overhang.”
“Indeed, we took turns to express our opposition, and still stand firmly in our conviction that only an irresponsible and unpatriotic Majority Group will support any additional borrowing of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government that has defaulted on our debt repayments. Such recklessness will truly find expression in the Guinness Book of Records.”
We hereby urge the Ghanaian people to disregard any such suggestions that the Minority supported the approval of the recent loans, and treat all such assertions with the contempt they deserve.”