Osafo Maafo Dismisses Allegations Against Gov't

The Minister of Finance Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo, yesterday said that government had nothing to do with the circumstances that led to the imposition of penalty of $34 million on Ghana by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Responding to a question by Mr. Ignatius Kofi Poku Adusei MP (Bekwai) in Parliament on why Ghana was fined, the Minister explained that the IMF team on a routine assignment in the country discovered that the bank was furnished with the wrong statistics. They then reported back to the World Bank for action.

The Finance Minister said the fine was $34 million and not $39 million as carried by a national daily.

He said the government has paid $17 million for July and is to pay the rest by the end of December.

The Minister said the government had to pay without parliamentary approval owing to the grace period given after which the loan would be frozen.

He dismissed accusations against the NPP as the source of misinformation to the IMF, saying the loan was contracted in August last year when the NPP was not in power and could not have accessed such vital information.

He argued that the misinformation could also have got to the World Bank through a communication blunder between the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana.

It will be recalled that the past government contracted a loan of US$26.05 million from the World Bank under a three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy Facility arrangement in August last year. But the World Bank slapped the penalty on Ghana after it was discovered that the past government furnished it with inaccurate information related to prior action on clearance of external payments arrears and performance criterion on non-concessional external borrowing.