[ 2016-09-05 ]

IMF must respect BoG Amended Bill- Dr. Akoto Osei
Economist, and member of the Finance Committee in
Parliament, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei has defended
the legislature’s decision to cap the Bank of
Ghana (BoG) financing of government budget at 5
percent.

His defense follows a press statement issued by
the IMF over the weekend expressing
dissatisfaction at some legislations passed by the
House recently.

As part of the IMF conditions, government was
expected to eliminate central bank’s financing
from 10 percent to zero, while it removes
government’s representatives on the Monetary
Policy Committee of the BoG.

Parliament, however kept the BoG’s ability to
finance the government budget at 5 percent, while
government’s representatives on the Monetary
Policy Committee of the BoG was scrapped.

But speaking to Citi Business News, Dr. Anthony
Akoto Osei maintained that even though the IMF can
compel the Executive under its agreement,
parliament cannot be forced to rubber stamp every
government decision, hence parliament’s rejected
some of the requirements.

“Parliament is a sovereign body and parliament
thought that for the nation Ghana, that was not
the best option so parliament kept to that side.
If they [IMF] had an agreement with government
that parliament did not like, parliament has the
right to reject it,” he said.

He maintained that the executive arm of government
cannot dictate to parliament since the house is
expected to serve as check on government
expenditure.

Citing the rigorous procedure that the bill went
through in parliament, Dr. Akoto Osei stated that
members considered the practicality of the
proposals and its effect on the economy before
maintaining the central bank’s financing of
government budget at 5 percent.

“The executive can go and enter into any form of
agreement but for it to binding the peoples’
representative must approve it. If parliament
disagree with the executive, that will be it. The
executive cannot force parliament to do things in
a certain way just because it has bonded itself in
an agreement with the IMF,” he said.

He stressed that under no circumstances should the
nation Ghana be compelled to take decisions that
are contrary to the views of the people.

Reacting to a possibility of government coming
back to parliament to amend the law, Dr. Akoto
Osei stated that the move will be
counterproductive and slap in the face of the
executive.

“As far as am concerned, parliament has done it
work and it is up to the executive to explain why
parliament took that decision to the IMF. They
must respect the parliament of Ghana,” he said.

IMF expresses dissatisfaction

A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
led by Joël Toujas-Bernaté, on a third review
of Ghana’s programme with the IMF questioned
some legislations passed by parliament recently.

Acoording to the team, “outstanding questions
remain with regards to certain elements of the
legislations recently passed by Parliament and
discussions will continue”.

Parliament recently passed the Bank of Ghana
Amendment Bill which was critical to the IMF
conditions in granting the central bank power, as
well as eliminate government’s budget financing
by the BoG to zero percent.

The release, which was copied to Citi Business
News stated that the team visited Accra from
August 29 to September 2, 2016 to continue
discussions on the third review of Ghana’s
financial and economic program supported by the
IMF’s Extended Credit Facility (ECF)

It stated that the team had constructive
discussions with the authorities during the week
on a few outstanding issues.

“The discussions focused mainly on updating the
macroeconomic projections, firming up the fiscal
outlook for 2016, and ascertaining that financial
pressures faced by the main State Owned
Enterprises (SOEs) in the energy sector will not
pose additional risks to the central government
budget,” it said.

The mission met with President John Dramani
Mahama; Finance Minister Seth Terkper; Bank of
Ghana Governor Dr. Abdul-Nashiri Issahaku; and
other senior officials.

Source - citibsinessnews.com

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