Ofori-Atta has been very disappointing, the public purse he promised to protect is now empty – Sophia Akuffo

The immediate past Chief Justice of Ghana, Sophia Akuffo, has expressed her disappointment with the current state of Ghana’s economy.

Speaking in a JoyNews interview, which was monitored by GhanaWeb, Sophia Akuffo said that the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, promised to protect the public purse, but things are even worse now.

“When Ken became Minister of Finance in 2017, I heard him on the TV. He was talking, and he was saying that he sees his responsibility as being that of protecting the national coffers. Now the promise and the achievement, the gap is too big, and I need more explanation.

“…all I know is that you were going to protect the national coffers, and they are now empty. Whether they were empty at that time or not is neither here nor there. Because you were not going to protect the empty thing, you were going to protect it and make sure that everything that comes into it is going to be well husbanded… so we would go on and not reverse again.

“It has been very disappointing... the fact is, whether it was Ken Ofori-Atta or somebody else I will still feel the same,” she said.

She reiterated that she has nothing against Ken Ofori-Atta, saying that she does not get personal on national issues.

On the matter of calls for Ofori-Atta to be fired, Akuffo, who was also the head of Ghana's Covid-19 Response Public Trust Fund, said that she will leave it with the president who appointed him.

She advised the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government to consider merging some ministries given the current state of Ghana’s economy.

The former Chief Justice of Ghana, who was appointed by President Akufo-Addo, has for the past few days made headlines after she joined retirees in picketing at the Ministry of Finance in Accra over the government’s plan to include their bonds in its Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.

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