Dr. Cassiel Ato forson, a Finance committee member and the former deputy Finance Minister says the statement made by President on bringing the Agyapa deal to Parliament was disrespectful.
Speaking in an interview, he said because the deal was not before Parliament, he was expecting the President to come to parliament to withdraw the transaction.
“To me, that statement from the President on the Agyapa transaction to parliament…was disrespectful. One, Agyapa in its current form is not before Parliament; in fact Parliament has approved it, the [then] majority side. I was expecting the president to come before parliament and withdraw the transaction and get Parliament to rescind the earlier decision.”
Ato Forson
Moreover, he asked the President not even bother bringing the Agyapa deal to Parliament for engagement.
Read Also: Agyapa Deal To Be Back In Parliament For Rengagement- Akufo-Addo
Assessment of SONA
Giving his assessment on the State of the Nation’s Address by the President, he said the President was not on top of his own speech. This, he indicated, might have been as a result of unpreparedness or lack of confidence in his speech.
“So, my general assessment of the State of the Nation Address will be 3 over 10. It’s either he failed to prepare or he wasn’t confident in some of the things that he was saying. That for me was very informative, it was not impressive.”
Ato Forson
Dr. Ato Forson the speech should have been reconciliatory by uniting both parties instead of rubbing the achievements in their face. He then averred that the speech did not reflect the true state of the nation.
He said some comments made by the President was not necessary and accused him of “throwing jabs” in his speech.
Touching on the economy, he says the President refused to touch on the public debt the nation has accumulated so far as he was aware the nation is in debt. This he said was to be mention ahead of the budget reading which comes off this Friday.
According to Dr. Forson the debt cannot be entirely be as a result of COVID-19 pandemic but will have other factors contributing to it. Touching on the ‘Ghana CARE initiative, he assured that details would be demanded on the GHC100 billion allocated budget for the initiative.
Alhassan Tampuli on SONA
Also speaking on the SONA, Mr Alhassan Tampuli, former NPA boss and MP for Gushegu, averred the President had not stated if he was bringing the deal back or not but was bringing it for re-engagement. This, he said, was to take future decisions on the deal.
Clarifying the issue of the ownership of the Agyapa deal, he says it is 100 per cent owned by government and not for any private institution as earlier insinuated.
Clarifying the issue of the ownership of Agyapa, he revealed that the deal is 100 per cent owned by government. And not for any private institution as earlier insinuated.
Ghana Cares Initiative
Commenting on the ‘Ghana Cares’ initiative announced by the government yesterday and where the government was to get this amount, he averred that the credibility of the government is what sometimes attracts the fund to go about such initiatives.
Touching on the economy, he indicated that the president can read the SONA without telling the nation’s debt.
“You can decide not to add the debt of the country to the address. Especially if it is not something to worry too much about. The budget will be read on Friday and you will get everything, so I don’t see the rush.”
Alhassan Tampuli
Mr. Tampuli further indicated that Ghana’s economy is nowhere near HIPC.
