Franklin Cudjoe, President of the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, believes the newly supposed role being assigned Ken Ofori-Atta reduces the Finance Ministry to nothing.
He says the former Minister of Finance who is allegedly going to be named senior presidential advisor to the President on financially-related matters will provide key directions before decisions would be made at the Ministry.
According to Mr. Cudjoe, the sector would have to rely on the orders of Mr. Ofori-Atta to carry out major decisions, thereby reducing it to a mere paper-pushing department.
He tells Alfred Ocansey on Ghana Tonight Wednesday, February 14, 2024, that the new role gives more executive powers to the President’s cousin than he initially wielded, making his reassignment a promotion rather than a demotion.
“Whatever it is, this new role is much bigger and it places much more executive authority, he has much more executive power and he can advise as to whether we should move in a certain direction even before the Finance Ministry can do the paper work so it virtually reduces the Finance Ministry to maybe just pushing papers,” Franklin Cudjoe indicated.
He also noted that Mr. Ofori-Atta’s reshuffle has nothing to do with neither his performance nor utterances about Ghana not going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout and eventually going.
He observed that if it had anything to do with such, then everyone at the entire ministry would have been ousted by the President.
“His sacking was not probably because he said he wasn’t going to the IMF and eventually we had to go to the IMF. Unless of course we are being told that he superintended monumental failure at the ministry.
“Because if he did, then everybody who worked under the ministry must be going anyway. So I’m not too sure the reason why he left is because he underperformed,” he stated.
Reports that Ken Ofori-Atta would be named senior presidential advisor to the President on financial matters is further corroborated with a clarification that his new portfolio will see him also serve as the president’s special envoy on international investment on the capital markets.
Despite both members of the ruling NPP and opposition NDC in Parliament describing his performance as abysmal and demanded his removal, Ken Ofori-Atta was Ghana’s longest serving finance minister.
On October 25, 2022, some 80 NPP MPs demanded his resignation over the bad state of the economy, which was reiterated by the NDC parliamentary caucus in February 2023.
Their calls for resignation were, however, rejected by President Akufo-Addo, who, at the time, asked for parliament to wait until conversations with the IMF were over.
