Even with no global crisis and also with the benefit of oil revenue, Former President John Dramani Mahama still went to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for support when he was in office, a leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko, has said.
His comments come on the heels of the criticisms leveled against the government especially the Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia who is Head of the Economic Management team (EMT) and also the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, by Mr Mahama to the effect that the administration has mismanaged the economy.
After years of indicating that it will not seek support from the IMF, the Akufo-Addo government has finally decided to do so.
On Friday July 1 President Akufo-Addo gave instruction to Mr Ofori-Atta to commence the engagements with the IMF following a telephone conversation between the President and the IMF Managing Director, Miss Kristalina Georgieva, conveying Ghana’s decision to engage with the Fund.
The Ministry of Information announced this in a statement on Friday July 1.
Reacting to this development, Mr Mahama welcomed the decision to go the Bretton Woods institution and further asked the President to remove the head of the EMT and the Finance Minister because in his view, they have failed.
He also said that the Mr Ofori-Atta supervised disastrous collapse of the economy therefore cannot and should not be part of the team of negotiators for the engagements with the IMF.
“The Finance Minister who has supervised the disastrous collapse of the economy cannot and should not be part of the team of negotiators. He has lost credibility and the trust and confidence of stakeholders in our economy. President Akufo-Addo must take a bold decision to replace his finance minister immediately with a more assured and competent person who is willing and able to work tirelessly to turn our almost hopeless situation around.
‘In addition, given his obvious failures, the Vice President must be relieved of his responsibility as Chair of the Economic Management Team to enable the President to reconstitute the team. We must draw useful lessons from this episode and avoid cheap politicking with the economy; that can only yield the disastrous outcomes that have brought us here,” Mr Mahama said in a Facebook post on Saturday July 2.
Responding to him in a tweet, Mr Otchere-Darko said “We remember so well, Sir, agitations within NDC for you to sack Seth Terkper, your finance minister.
“You stuck by him, though Ghanaians were perplexed why IMF in 2014/15, with all the new additional revenues from oil, and no global crisis like now,” Gabby tweeted on Saturday July 2.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana
