Former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has re-echoed his stance on the charges levelled against him by the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame.

The Ajumako Enyan Essiam MP believes the AG has triggered the prosecution as punishment for his position against the E-levy policy as he remains “implacably opposed to the poor economic policies of this government and in particular the E-Levy.”

The A-G’s office has filed criminal charges against him and two others for allegedly causing financial loss to the state concerning the procurement of 200 ambulances by the erstwhile NDC-led government.

This comes in the wake of a raging debate in Parliament over the inclusion of the controversial E-Levy in the 2022 budget, which the Minority has resisted vehemently.

Members of Parliament affiliated with the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) say the policy is only a means to siphon funds from the Ghanaian taxpayer while worsening their burden in an economy badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the A-G’s office is fighting off these allegations.

A press release issued on January 5, by the Deputy Attorney-General, Diana Asonaba Dapaah, explained that an earlier conference organized by the NDC saw Mr Ato Forson make comments geared towards “exposing the Attorney-General to prejudice and hatred.”

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Mr Ato Forson insisted that the claims have nothing to do with the said ambulances as advertised by the AG’s office but rather ulterior motives.

“It is the Attorney General who is driven by hate, prejudice and demagoguery! He is the one abusing his prosecutorial powers to silence critical political opponents.”

The Ranking Member on the Finance Committee also referred to a portion of the A-G’s January 6 justification which read;

“As stated in the facts of the case filed in court on December 22, 2011, the cabinet endorsed an executive approval of a joint memorandum submitted to the cabinet by the then Minister for Health and the first accused Cassiel Ato Forson, then Deputy Minister for Finance, for the purchase of 200 ambulances out of a medium-term credit facility of €15,800,000 between Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited and the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Finance.”

On this point, Cassiel Ato Forson seems baffled.

Considering that his tenure as Deputy Minister of the Finance Ministry began in 2013, the legislator quizzed, “how could I have signed a cabinet MEMO in December 2011?