The Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) Caucus in Parliament is calling on the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to immediately resign his post for grossly breaching the Constitution and the Public Financial Management Act in the US$2.25billion bond he issued in 2017.
In their view, since there were some aspects of conflict on interest and breaches of the criminal code and other laws of the land in the issuance of the US$2.25 billion bond, there is no need for the finance minister to be office.
“It is our contention that based on these willful breaches of Ghanaian law, guidelines and processes in the bond issuance, the Finance Minister has made his continuous stay in office untenable and we hereby demand his immediate resignation or dismissal and subsequent prosecution”, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu who addressed journalists, Wednesday, over the position of the group in the wake of the CHRAJ’s findings against the Finance Minister noted.
Should Mr. Ofori-Atta fail to resign, the Minority intends to invoke Article 82 of the Constitution to ensure his exit from office.
But before embarking on such move, they want the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to clearly demonstrate his commitment of fighting corruption in this matter by sacking Mr. Ofori-Atta who happens to be cousin should he (Ofori-Atta) fail to honourably bow out from his office.
“We wish to serve notice that in the event that President Akufo-Addo allows his judgment to be clouded by his blood relations with the Finance Minister and refuses to act in accordance with the Ghanaian law to remove him from within fourteen (14) days from today, we shall invoke a motion of censorship in accordance with Article 82 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana to remove him from office as soon as possible”, Mr. Iddrisu emphasized.
On December 29, 2017, the Commissioned on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) release its report on the investigations it conducted into a complaint brought before it by Brogya Gyenfi, the Ashanti Regional Youth Organiser of the NDC in the wake of the issuance of the US$2.25 billion bond in March 2017.
The bonds in question were 5-year, 7-year, 10-year and 15-year bonds which were opened for non-resident investors.
