[ 2017-04-21 ]

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia

Ignorant Minority must read – Bawumia
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has fired
salvos at the Minority National Democratic
Congress (NDC) in parliament, describing them as
“ignorant” following their stance over the
issuance of a $2.25 billion 15-year domestic
bond.

The minority at a press briefing on Tuesday, April
18, 2017 cited the finance minister for conflict
of interest and lack of transparency in the
issuance of $2.25 billion 15-year bond.

Government issued 15 and 7-year bonds with a
coupon rate of 19.75%, raising a total amount of
USD1.13 billion. The Finance Ministry additionally
raised cedi equivalent of USD1.12 billion in five
and 10-year bonds through a tap arrangement.
Former deputy finance Minister Casely Ato Forson
at the press conference asserted Franklin
Templeton Investment limited which acquired about
95% of the domestic bond floated earlier this
month has a direct relationship with Mr.
Ofori-Atta.

Vice president Bawumia who is currently in
Washington attending the World Bank/IMF spring
meeting told the media the Minority lacks
“understanding in managing the economy.”

He said: “It shows a lack of understanding. The
minority has never understood this economy. It
shows ignorance and I’m so sad this is coming
from people who should know better.”

“Maybe they should read a little… we are doing
even much better,” Dr. Bawumia punched the
Minority, adding, “They are really demonstrating
a lot of ignorance in the process of managing the
economy.”

Parliamentary Probe

The minority is calling for a parliamentary probe
into the deal.
The NDC MPs are threatening to drag the finance
Minister to the Commission for Human Rights and
Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) if their quest to
get the Legislature to look into the deal fails.

“Furthermore, we also intend to exercise the
option of filing a report/petition with the
Financial Services Authority of the U.S.A to
investigate Franklyn Templeton. We also wish to
point out that this Bond issue is clearly an
international economic/business transaction within
the meaning of article 181 (5) of the
Constitution.

“Therefore, we expected that the bond issuance
would have been brought to parliament for
approval”.

However, speaking to Starr News, a deputy Finance
Minister Abena Osei Asare refuted claims of the
minority explaining the previous administration
dealt with the investor in question. “What the
minority is seeking to do is just throwing dust
into the public eyes. There are more important
issues that we need to discuss. —This Franklin
Templeton Investor that they are talking about,
we’ve been doing business, Ghana has been doing
business with them for more than 10 years now so I
honestly don’t see what they are talking
about”.

The Atiwa East MP also challenged claims the deal
was shrouded in secrecy arguing the one day used
in floating the bonds is a normal practice.

She stressed: “There is an issuance calendar
which comes every quarter that will tell you the
number of bonds that is going to take place in a
particular quarter. So this is nothing new, they
knew about it. They said that the period was just
one day, my brother usually it’s two days but
it’s happened before that these bonds are done
in a day, there is nothing wrong with that, this
is nothing out of the ordinary. It wasn’t done
in secrecy, there is not conflict of interest here
and they are free to do whatever they want to do.
But I believe that in their quest to come to
power, they shouldn’t destroy this country
through some of these things. This is an investor
you have worked with before; over 10 years. This
investor bought 3.5 billion of your bonds so this
is nothing new”.

Source - Starrfmonline.com

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