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BoG’s $250m head office: We will join Minority’s demo – Arise-Ghana
Pressure group, Arise Ghana has served notice it will join the Minority’s demonstration against the Bank of Ghana’s governor and his deputies.
According to the group, the decision was taken after a “painstaking study of the damning revelations contained in the 2022 report and financial statements of the Bank of Ghana.”
In a press statement issued on Monday, August 21, it also described the central bank’s decision to construct a new headquarters as irresponsible.
“Arise Ghana has followed keenly the recent public discourse on the dire state of the Bank of Ghana emanating from the 2022 Audit Report and Financial Statements of the bank.”
“After painstakingly studying the damning revelations contained in the 2022 Report and Financial Statements of the Bank of Ghana, we have come to the conclusion that the Central Bank is in the unprecedented mess it presently finds itself because of crass mismanagement by the Addison-led Board and management.”
The pressure group also lashed out at the BoG for allegedly printing GH¢77 billion for the government.
“We hold the view that the illegal printing of money by BoG in the year 2021 and 2022 to the tune of GHS77 billion to finance the recklessness of the corrupt Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government, in flagrant disregard of section 30 of the BOG Act (as amended) is the height of irresponsibility and must be condemned by all well-meaning Ghanaians.”
“Even more bizarre and condemnable, is the illegal writing of about GHS32 billion of this amount without recourse to Parliament in breach of section 53 of the Public Financial Management Act.”
“In fact, these irresponsible and criminal acts of the BoG Governor, ably supported by his deputies and useless Board of Directors, is what has plunged the once profitable BoG bank into unprecedented losses to the tune of GHS60.8 billion and a negative equity of GHS55.1 billion in 2022 alone.”
The Minority in Parliament on Tuesday, August 8, demanded the resignation of Dr Ernest Addison and his deputies, levelling grave allegations of gross financial mismanagement within the Bank of Ghana.
The NDC MPs claimed that Dr Addison must quit his post for supervising the ¢60 billion loss the Central Bank recorded for the year-ending 2022.
The Minority also alleged that the Bank of Ghana failed to report its activities to Parliament.
BoG in a statement attributed the losses to the government’s domestic debt restructuring activities and the depreciation of the cedi.
This position, the Majority Leader Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has affirmed, stating that no wrongdoing has occurred.
However, the Minority have warned that should the trio fail to resign, they will organise a mammoth protest against them.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
