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Senior Minister, Hon Yaw Osafo-Maafo has strongly asserted that the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama-led government was not truthful in its dealings with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by "misreporting" a Ghc 7billion arrears; thus backing claims by the Vice-President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia that the NDC hid vital figures from the international financial institution.
According to him, the previous administration engaged in what is termed as "a dignified way of telling lies" to the World Bank and IMF, which could come with punitive measures, just as it was done to the Rawlings led administration.
“If the right information isn’t sent to IMF it is called misreporting not under reporting. It is a dignified way to tell the world that you have told a lie to the World Bank and IMF and it comes with a fine. Ghana has been fined 39.5 million”, he told Kwami Sefa Kayi; alluding to events in 2001 where the IMF slapped a $39million fine on Ghana for misrepresenting the state of the economy.
That particular penalty was over misinformation made by the previous government of Jerry John Rawlings for the period August 21 to December 31, 2000.
The Senior Minister was however emphatic that the revelations surrounding the money drawn from state coffers, is not to undermine the past goverment by claiming they have stolen state money.
“No one has stolen money from the state but the GHC7 billion expenditure drawn from state coffers is money that we (Ghana) have incurred and it is going to affect our deficit. Every unpaid debt remains a debt and we must make allowance for the payment of it,” he pointed out.
The Minority Caucus in Parliament, on Wednesday challenged Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia’s claim that the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government did not account for a GHC7 billion expenditure drawn from state coffers between 2014 and 2016.
They believed the Second Gentleman of the land was still in a campaign mood and had not yet come to the realization that his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is now in power.
Addressing a gathering at the Launch of the "Good Corporate Governance Initiative" at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra earlier in the week, Dr Bawumia noted that Ghana's economy could not thrive well without a proper economic data on the country's revenues and expenditure.
According to him, as the new government makes preparation of the budget for the 2017 fiscal year vis-a-vis the interrogation of data on the previous government’s expenditure, they discovered an unaccounted Ghc7 billion.
Dr. Bawumia shockingly disclosed that as the government "interrogated the data to see exactly why our public finances are in the state they are, we found out that there is GHC 7 billion of expenditures that have not been disclosed. And I'm talking 7 billion [so] in the year 2016 and these come from 2014, 2015, 2016."
"So, where have they been hiding all these years and how are you supposed to manage an economy with faulty data?" he rhetorically asked.
Rebutting the Vice-President's assertions, the Minority claimed the GHC7 billion was used for "part of the contract database and outstanding commitment, and did not constitute the conventional definition of arrears.
The government is obliged to incorporate the commitments, as a first charge on the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDA’s) budget 2017. The framework is also covered in the new Public Financial Management (PFM) Act, under the Budget Responsibility provisions.”
According to them, the GHC 7 billion expenditure was occasioned by a major initiative or reform on government contracts and expenditure, which is part of the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System project that the new administration is expected to continue implementing.
They therefore accused Dr Bawumia of lying and cautioned him against "rushing with information to the public" instead "taking time to understand" reforms and initiatives.
“....stop the lies and get back to work in order to redeem the mountain of promises made to Ghanaians during the 2016 electioneering campaign....We are displeased by the tendency of the Vice President to rush with information to the public and the media particularly the structural measures and reforms without taking time to understand the rational for the reforms and initiatives,” former Deputy Finance Minister and a Member of Parliament (MP) for Ajumako Enyan Essiam Consistency in the Central Region, Hon. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson who addressed the press said.
Barely 24hours after the Minority's press conference, the Majority countered and wholly backed Dr Bawumia's claims and warned that the failure of the previous Mahama-led government to account for GH7 billion expenditure could result in punitive action against the country by the International Monetary Fund.
Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo, then wades in the fray insisting that the previous administration ‘lied’ to the IMF about Ghana’s economy.
Hon. Maafo, who was the co-chair of the Transition Team, in an interview on Peacefm’s Kokrooko Show revealed that the new NPP administration were able to trace that GHC7 billion has drawn from state coffers by going through the books of the Ministry of Finance and Controller and Accountant General.
As co-chair of the team that supervised the seamless transition of power from the NDC to NPP, Hon. Osafo Marfo makes it clears that he was privy to firsthand documents that backed claims by Vice President Dr. Bawumia that the NDC left a hefty hole in government account.
“We have seen figures that differ from what they gave to the transition team. It is not true they gave the figures to the transition team…I am the co-chair. These figures we are bringing out were not given to us by our counterparts during the transition.”
He further said “the GHC7 billion (representing arrears and commitments) we are seeing now is misreporting. It was exposed when we went through the figures one by one during the detail analysis”.
Source: Chris Joe Quaicoe/ email: [email protected]
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Massa; you pay a bribe of $50million to influence the IMF officers to cook a programme for you and they look the other way and approve your programme but you shall pay $200million in fines along the way when they discover you have cooked up the books to full them !!!!!!!does it make sense to you !!!!!!!besides you come home to find stolen goods in your house ; you keep quiet and the neighbours go and report that there some stolen goods in your house and then you turn round and blame the neighbours for stilling the goods ; this has nothing to do with Osafo -Marfo it is all because NDC was founded on lies and deceit by JJ Rawlings who started with this lies and forgery and was fined $34million ; today it is kriminal Jon Mahama again an NDC leader caught out falsifying the books again thinking the NDC are smart people ; WHY FOR GODS SAKE CANNOT THE NDC BE HONEST FOR ONCE IN THEIR EXISTANCE : OH NDC PAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
your are very ***barred word*** huds no surprise you support ndc.Do you understand the scale of this problem, if they don't disclose it now, it will back to hurt us .We are full of lies and not even ashamed.You are heartless my friend.
Look at this pig mouth bbuffoon.this monkey looking osafo marfo is a confused iiidiot
Massa; What is the matter with us Ghanaians KWARAA !!!!!!!; if these IMF figures were misquoted; misreported ; deliberately hidden or not amounts to the same ***barred word*** called FRAUD !!!!!!! why are NDC members engrossed and covered in the faeces of lies and fraud ; Osafo Marfo need not report what the actual correct figures are because the IMF already know the correct figures ; there counter agents within the finance department and Bank of Ghana who feed the correct figures to the IMF secretly ; why does these NDC RATS and squireels think the IMF are so stoooooopid they do not know what is happening on the ground in Ghana besides they have people on the ground who gather intelligence about the Ghanaian economy all the time ; the whole idea is that the IMF deliberately set you up because they know in the long run they will drain the swamp and fish you out and you pay !!!!! because you told lies ; the nasty part is that you shall pay a heavy penalty to the IMF ; Massa ; it is not Osafo Marfo you need to blame ; blame the incompetent Jon Mahama and Seth Terpkor and his team ; these IMF and World organisations when it comes cash do not take prisoners besides they have a complete dossiers on the FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES OF JON MAHAMA AND THE NDC ; REMEMBER THE IMF OR WORLD BANK DOES NOT DEAL WITH INDIVIDAULS THEY ONLY DEAL GOVERNMENTS and if the charge was $34 million at the time of JJ Rawlings then just calculate how much it will cost Ghana in todays money ; OSAFO MARFO HAS NOT DONE ANYTHING WRONG BECAUSE THE IMF WILL FIND OUT ANYWAY BESIDES THEY KNOW !!!!!; OSAFO MARFO's position is what we call financial case mitigation to the IMF besides if you are NDC please stop backing these FRAUDULENT ACTS BY THIS EVIL NDC PARTY !!!!!BECAUSE THEY HAVE CAUSED IRREPERABLE DAMAGE TO OUR ECONOMY.
Black man will never learn, no white man will be selling his country out like this, you could resolve this issue within yourselves rather than shouting on rooftops. White men are not clean either but they learn to cover each other, they see us as ***barred word*** and ***barred word*** any time we sell ourselves out. This is very disgraceful and they will not trust NPP either. You achieve nothing good with this.
@OJAM, and who told you that Osarfo Marfo is telling the truth? must he come shouting louder in public on private issues? what does he stand to gain in all these? a patriotic citizen will not do this. Do you sincerely believe everything transaction these white people does with Africa is fair? reason up
Yours, I don't think you appreciate the seriousness of this issue. You are here typing insane comments. This is precisely what happened before and Ghana was fined 39 million dollars. If you are a good citizen you would rather chastise NDC for this neglect rather blaming the NPP.
The comments made by "Huds" and "barred word" indicates that they lack understanding about how the international financial markets work. Everything is based on trust unlike African countries where everything is based on deception and lies. A country that consistently provide false information/data to raise funds will sooner or later find themselves frozen out of the financial markets. Therefore when you go to the IMF for help so that you can repair your damaged financial credibility you must go with clean hands and not lies. The way you do things in Africa is not the way things are done on the international scene. A country is not an individual that is why you are made to pay a fine for such fraudulent act but if it were an individual you will face both a fine and possible imprisonment. Please educate yourself very well about such matters before you comment.
this is what we get when we vote a party that governs by propaganda into power. misreporting simply means you incur a debt of 10cedis and then you report that you actually spent 3cedis while the 7cedis remains on the books. the implications of this is that you will be reporting a small deficit (that is the difference between earnings and spending) instead of the actual deficit. the incoming government needs to set the records straight so that the people of Ghana and the entire world would know the true size of the debt that they inherited and praise them accordingly if they are able to clear all that debt
For me; Osafo Marfo assertios regarding the likely penalty from the World Bank or IMF is nothing strange ;one may call it mis-information ; misreporting ; under estimation ;diplomatically been economical with the truth or you call it as you wish but to me it was PLAIN FRAUD by JOn Mahama !!!!!!!; mine problem is that it is the IMF or the World Bank that perpetuates these lies and deceit to encourage Ghanaian officials to lie about the true nature of these figures ; in other words there is massive 'corruption at both organisations because they always look the other way and pretend not to see or hear anything that they know will harm the Ghana economy ; What borrowers like desperate Ghana do not realise is that they are force themselves to sign sign these dubious programmes;in many cases IMF officers will tell you point blank to under estimate figures so as to get these loans but behind close doors they will tell you that they never told you that ; what Seth Terpkor and his ediotic finance team including this student Ato Forson do not do even read the small print which says ; 'YOU LIE AT YOUR OWN PERIL'secondly these Banks are not charities ; they represent the interest of affluent nations with excess cash to spare for lending to poor nations like Ghana who think refusing to manage their own economys means an alternative means to BORROW AND BORROW like drunken sailors ; they call it Smart Borrowing'; the IMF is always prepared to lend you money if you can falsify your figures because they know a nation can never go bankrupt; becasuse so long as that nation exist they will get their money back ; the Ghanaian team led by Seth Terpkor are always a laughing stock to these bankers at IMF meetings because they know there is gross under-estimation of figures or cooking the books to get these loans ; they know the Jon Mahama government of the NDc were very corrupt and were stilling the monies ; do you think they do not underground intelligence team to collect data on the Ghana economy -YOU MUST BE JOKING !!!!!but at the end of the day the IMF will lend you the money because they know Ghana will have to pay them whether NDC or the government were economical the your figures or not and top of the fine you again -OH GHANA !!!!!!!!!when shall we stop putting square pegs in round holes !!!!!!