South Dayi Member of Parliament, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor has accused the government of deception relative to the Domestic Debt Exchange programme.

He said the House would not have approved the 2023 budget statement if the lawmakers had known that individual bondholders were going to be affected.

Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, he said “The handling of this matter was very deceitful. We wouldn’t have approved the budget if we knew domestic bondholders would be affected.”

Individual bondholders rejected their inclusion in the programme.

They held the meeting with Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Wednesday, January 18, after which a technical committee was forced to look into their concerns.

Mr Ofori-Atta said after the meeting that his Ministry expects the joint technical committee to finish its work by 30 January.

He said the government wants to get the programme started as part of moves to resolve the economic challenges.

Speaking to journalists he said “I think the clarity for all of us is that it is a voluntary programme. We have anticipated maybe getting up to 80 per cent which will still put us under the parameter, so we are asking everybody to really join.

The Forum reiterated their concerns which are legitimate concerns for all individuals and for the country at large. In the same way, in which we met members of the Pensions group, we set up a technical committee and they will be meeting immediately [Thursday, January 19], we don’t want to miss the deadline that we have set. We are confident that we will get there.

“The clarity for all of us is that it is a voluntary programme, we have anticipated getting up to 80 per cent which will still put us in the parameter so we are asking everybody to join.

The government continues to be a government that cares for people, lives and livelihoods as we saw in Covid, we protected and going forward too we will protect but also ensure the Community of the Republic crosses the Jordan safely, that is the challenge we have.”