Akoto Osei would’ve been a better Finance Minister – Adongo

The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo has described Minister in Charge of Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei as the defacto Finance Minister whose services Ghana is currently missing.

According to the member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr Akoto Osei who served as a Minister of State at the Finance Ministry under the Kufuor administration would have been a better Finance Minister than Ken Ofori Atta who he claims is messing up the country’s economy with his incompetence.

“As we speak today, the people that the NPP are missing is that dreaded combination that Kufuor had at the Ministry of Finance, my own chartered accountant colleague late Kwadwo Baah Wiredu and my own Dr Anthony Akoto Osei. This is what they are lacking at the Ministry and that is the truth. Anthony Akoto Osei has been put at the Monitoring and Evaluation unit, so people mess up and he’s supposed to tell them you’re messing up when he could do it and do it better. At the end of the day we’re having an economy which is being run by a businessman who’s looking for business opportunities to enrich himself ,” he told Bola Ray on Starr Chat on Starr FM.

Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt expressed similar views as he was skeptical about the choice of Ken Ofori Atta when he was nominated as the Finance Minister by President Akufo Addo.

He held the view that though the Finance Minister was an experienced banker, his lack of experience in public service calls for concern and he would have preferred experienced hands like Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei and Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo who have served in the ministry before to have taken that position.

His appointment was hailed by many who argued that having been successful as an investment banker, he would bring fresh thinking and innovation to the ministry leading to sound economic management.

But speaking on Metro TV’s Good morning Ghana at that time, Mr Pratt was of the opinion that the dynamics in the private sector are totally different from that of the public sector, hence Mr Ofori-Atta may not perform successfully as he did as a banker.

He explained that the work of a Finance Minister was one which looks to accumulate social profit, look at the political profit of the economy but banks do not operate that way.

“As a Minister of Finance you would have to work to please people who may not have any understanding of the technical workings of the economy and also work to deliver results which are not really economic and that may be a challenge for Ken”, he added.