[ 2016-09-24 ]

Baako produces document to dismiss Fifi Kwetey 'deception' on $750m loan
The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide
newspaper says Transport Minister, Fifi Kwetey,
was being deceptive when he said the New Patriotic
Party (NPP) wasted a $750 million loan facility in
2007.

Backing his challenge of Mr. Kwetey’s claims
with documents, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako Jnr said
it was baffling how the Minister would make such a
claim when there is evidence of infrastructural
projects that the loan facility financed.

Some of the infrastructural projects that were
financed with the loan facility were praised by
the late President, John Evans Atta Mills, he
revealed on Joy FM/Multi TV news analysis
programme, Newsfile, Saturday.

At a ‘Setting the Records Straight’ forum last
Thursday, Fifi Kwetey said NPP has no reliable
knowledge about debt servicing, citing how the
opposition party wasted the $750 million Eurobond
proceed when the party was in power.

“For us in the NDC, foreign loans are meant for
investment. Most likely, because the NPP was so
wasteful with foreign loans, the party wrongly
assumes the NDC has the same defect. No! We in the
NDC have a great track record of using foreign
debts to invest in solid investments,”


However, rebutting Mr Kwetey’s remarks on
Newsfile Saturday, Mr Baako produced a World Bank
document prepared jointly between Government of
Ghana and the World Bank that dealt with the
facility.

Reading copiously from the said document, he said,
“It says ‘non-concessionary borrowing in 2007
was mostly used to raise energy capacity and that
of 2008 is being accessed. Out of the $750 million
borrowed in 2007 in the form of Eurobonds $595
million have been disbursed by January 2009.

‘The proceeds were allocated primarily to
support public investments in the energy sector
according to the following distribution:
286 million dollars for investments by the Volta
River Authority (VRA)
134 million dollars for investment by the
Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG)
54 million dollars for investment in the Bui Dam
31 million dollars for the government’s equity
investment in the West Africa Gas Pipeline, and
90 million dollars for public investment in roads
infrastructure

‘The information provided by the Government of
Ghana confirms therefore that proceeds from the
Eurobond were used for productive investment,
primarily in electricity generation and
distribution, two areas that have been identified
in the 2007 programme as warranting additional
investment to sustained economic growth’, this
from the Mills administration to the World
Bank.”

He also cited a memorandum presented to the
Cabinet of the late John Mills’ administration
by then Minister for Finance and Economic
Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor to corroborate the
contents of the document jointly prepared by the
World Bank and government.

“It can’t be a waste,” he told show host,
Samson Lardi Anyenini.

Source - Myjoyonline.com

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