Government spokesperson on governance and securities, Palgrave Boakye-Danquah has claimed that Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta is not responsible for Ghana’s current economic challenges.
Palgrave mentioned that the management of the economy is the responsibility of the President and not the Finance Minister.
“The President has overall responsibility on the management of the economy. The President shares his roles with various designated Ministers one of whom is the Finance Minister.”
Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, Government spokesperson
He alluded to Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah’s division of economic management roles by claiming that “there are three arms of roles and responsibilities” in the management of the economy.
The Three Arms of Economic Management
According to Palgrave, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta in his capacity as Minister of Finance, is only in charge of one of the arms which is the formulation of fiscal policy.
He defined fiscal policy as “the expenditure; the deliverables of the policies that the President wants to deliver to the Ghanaian people.”
He suggested that fiscal policy is concerned with delivering on government flagship programmes aimed at supporting livelihoods.
“So you’ll hear of the Obaatanpa; you’ll hear of the YouStart; a number of interventions that will come in that will make sure that the Ghanaian people are cushioned very well as it relates to the economy.”
Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, Government spokesperson
Palgrave said the Bank of Ghana (BoG) handles an aspect of the roles of economic management called monetary policy.
He opined that the BoG’s monetary policy role is to formulate policies that will check the performance of Ghana’s cedis against foreign currencies.
“When we talk about the cedi depreciation against the overrated dollar, it’s a responsibility of the Bank of Ghana because that’s monetary policy,” Palgrave claimed.
The government spokesperson on governance and securities, noted that the President has the final and over all responsibility of managing the economy.
That is, the President is responsible for superintending over both the arm responsible for fiscal policy and the arm responsible for monetary policy.
The President has the over all responsibility which is why when we realized as a government that we need to engage the IMF, the responsibility came back to the President to instruct his Finance Minister to begin conversations with the IMF regardless of the thoughts, the views and perspective of the Finance Minister.”
Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, Government spokesperson
“The Finance Minister acts on the instructions of the appointer which is the President,” Palgrave said.
Assuming Palgrave was right in his classification of economic management responsibilities into three, where the President has the final and most powerful role because the President can direct the other arms to act in a way he deems fit, then probably Parliament is making the wrong call by asking the Finance Minister to step down.
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