The Minority in Parliament wants the GH₵48 billion debt written off for the government by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to be reinstated.
The group says the BoG’s justification for the written-off debt is baseless and illegal since the processes they adopted breached the constitutional requirement needed to legalise the directive.
A statement in response to a release from the Central Bank justifying its actions for printing monies for the government has been criticised by the NDC saying the procedure was illegal and needs to be reversed.
“The illegal write-off of about GHS48 billion debt owed by the government to the Bank of Ghana, the explanation canvassed by the Central Bank in its statement of 9th August, 2023 is untenable, as it has no legal basis whatsoever,” a statement signed by the NDC’s Dr. Ato Cassiel Ato Baah Forson on Friday, August 11, 2023, noted.
According to the Minority, “a mere declaration of intent to Parliament by the government to engage in debt restructuring does not amount to a resolution or approval by Parliament for BOG to write-off public funds. Neither does the IFRS accounting standard referred to by the Bank of Ghana permit the writing-off of public funds without Parliamentary approval.
“We wish to state unequivocally for the records, that at no point has the Finance Minister presented a report to Parliament informing the house of the attainment of the 5% borrowing threshold or the setting of a new limit of government borrowing as required by section 30 of the Bank of Ghana Act. Nor has the Finance Minister sought the approval of Parliament for BOG to write-off any public funds, as required by section 53 of Public Financial Management Act 2016 (Act, 918),” the statement contained in some parts.
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“The Minority is therefore demanding that The Bank of Ghana must do the needful by immediately reinstating the illegally written off liability of Government and stop the baseless justifications they are mounting,” it added.
The release also states that government’s intention to engage in a debt restructuring as reported in Parliament does not justify the breaches that were made in writing off the debt.
“The Bank of Ghana ought to know, that the mere reference to Government’s intention to engage in a domestic debt exchange program (DDEP) as communicated by the Finance Minister in the 2023 budget statement to Parliament, does not and cannot justify the bank’s breach of section 53 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016,” the statement contained.
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