A group of concerned persons namely the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), together with the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of various failed financial institutions including Savings and Loans Companies, Menzgold and Gold Coast have intimated that the Appointment Committee of Parliament should reject the nomination of Ken Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister because he did not live up to expectations.
The group asserted that during Ken Ofori-Atta’s tenure as Finance Minister he supervised the collapse of several financial institutions and also up to date various depositors’ funds that were locked up during the financial sector clean-up were not being paid.
Based on these submissions, the group petitioned the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to reject the nomination of Mr. Ofori-Atta as the Finance Minister-designate since he failed to meet up to the anticipation of Ghanaians in the last four years during his first term in office. So, he is not fit and proper to occupy such a position.
The appeal drafted by the group and sent to Parliament and the Vetting Committee, asking for the rejection of Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta’s nomination as finance Minister, is a 37-page petition document.
Mensah Thompson, who doubles as the Executive Secretary of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) and the Lead Speaker for the petitioners opined that, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta should be prosecuted for taking many poor decisions that affected the financial sector.
“Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta should be standing criminal prosecutions instead of vetting by the appointment committee of parliament based on the various violations of our laws, various misconducts and the activities of Mr Ken Ofiri-Atta between 2017 and 2021,” Mensah Thompson remarked.
The ASEPA Executive Secretary further enunciated that the appointment committee of Parliament should exercise due diligence in the performance of their duties, adding that they ought to put the interest of the country first by rejecting Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta nomination as the Finance Minister to handle the financial affairs of Ghana for the next four years.
“We’re also sending a word of caution to members of the appointment committee that we know of plans far advanced to induce members of the appointments committee to approve the nomination of Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta even though he knows for a fact that he’s unfit to occupy the position”, Mensah Thompson added.
In his concluding remarks, Mr. Mensah Thompson made it clear that as a group “we are sending a word of caution to them that we’re watching them and the people of Ghana will hold you to account on their conduct on the committee.
“We are also sending a special warning to the members of the NDC caucus of parliament that this time round it is not business as usual that the minority will have their say but majority will have their way.
“This time round they have equal strength like the party in power and so we the people of Ghana will hold them to the same level of account as we hold members of parliament of the government’s party…”.
