Communications officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has described the response by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on the minority’s press conference regarding the bank’s 2022 Annual report and financial statement as worthless and useless.
According to him, the statement doesn’t in any way address the fundamental issues the NDC raised. He revealed that among other things, the statement is worthless and useless because it provides very “flimsy and contrite excuses for the outrageous” expenditures the bank engaged in last year, which coupled with the mismanagement of the bank, has led to the crisis the country faces.
“The statement from the Bank of Ghana, which purposed to respond to the press conference of the National Democratic Congress on the state of the Central Bank is totally worthless and useless. As a matter of fact, that statement is not worth the sheet of paper it was printed on. The statement does not address the fundamental issues that the NDC raised concerning the current health of the Bank of Ghana and the actions and inactions of the Bank that has led to that…”
Sammy Gyamfi
Mr Gyamfi further explained that the losses recorded by BoG means that the Central Bank in its current state is in a position where it cannot service debt because aside the losses it made, the bank’s equity stands currently at negative GH55.1 billion. This, he explained, is because BoG’s liabilities have gone up so much and swallowed its assets.
“So, the Bank of Ghana is at a point of bankruptcy, it’s broke and this affects all of us because the government of Ghana is the sole shareholder of the Bank of Ghana. So, when the Bank of Ghana makes profits, it transfers that to government… When they post losses, the losses are that of the shareholder – in this case the government of Ghana and we will have to pay for it.”
Sammy Gyamfi
Addressing the NDC’s statement to BoG, Mr Gyamfi stated that the press conference, sought to diagnose and indeed, diagnosed, what has led to the “crisis, unprecedented loss and negative equities” at the Bank of Ghana. He noted that it was very clear from the facts that the Bank of Ghana is in this quagmire primarily because of the “illegal and criminal” printing of money for the “reckless Akufo-Addo/Bawumia nation-wrecking government and outrageous, so-called operational expenses” the bank engaged in last year.
“I have read this statement, there’s not a word that responds to our fundamental issue which has to do with the bank’s illegal and criminal printing of money for President Akufo-Addo and Bawumia. What that tells any reasonable, objective mind is that they have no response…”
Sammy Gyamfi
Illegal printing of money by BoG
Elaborating on the Central Bank’s losses, Mr Gyamfi attributed the losses to the “criminal quadrants” as being responsible for the economic mess. He revealed that what BoG has done, in terms of printing money is an “unpardonable crime” against the laws of the country and that “they have committed this crime with obscene impunity”.
“Here, we are talking about the chairman of the economic management team Alhaji Bawumia, finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and the Governor of the Bank, Addsion. You know the three of them constitute a committee called economic policy coordinating committee… So, when Bawumia was saying that the money is there, they were referring to a printing machine at the Bank of Ghana that they could resort to print money in the billions and waste the money.”
Sammy Gyamfi
Meanwhile, the NDC national communications officer questioned whether the GHC80 billion printed for government in two years, has had any impact on employment, in terms of government settling its arrears to contractors, school feeding caterer and food suppliers. In light of this, he emphasized that the government is not setting good examples as it is prosecuting and jailing people in the country for breaching public procurement laws, while it has gone ahead to breach the Bank of Ghana Act and public financial management Act with such “impunity and you think you’ll go scot-free”.
“To add insult to that, the law says government must pay within three months, the government because they have misused the money cannot pay, so they’ve gone to sit – Bawumia, Ken Ofori-Atta and Addison and they’re saying they can’t pay… Addison and Ken Ofori-Atta, they are jailbirds walking free – because these are jail bound people. I do not see how these people can escape the full rigors of the law under the next NDC government in 2025…”
Sammy Gyamfi
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