Kofi Adams, the Buem member of parliament, has charged that unapproved payments and careless spending by the Bank of Ghana have inflated Ghana’s debt.
Concerns have been expressed by Public Accounts Committee (PAC) member, Kofi Adams regarding Ghana’s liabilities, which are expected to skyrocket from GHC459 billion in 2021 to GHC810 billion in 2022. He ascribed this increase to poor management at the Bank.
Uncertain transactions were exposed by Kofi Adams during a PAC meeting with the Bank of Ghana. Despite there being no development on the ground, he mentioned a $12 million payment made to MS Power China International Group Limited for the Pwalugu Irrigation Project.
Adams additionally brought attention to a $2.5 million payment made to Morta Engils for the Accra-Tema Motorway project, which was purportedly made without the required contract. To look into these transactions more, the PAC has asked the Bank of Ghana for documentation.
In addition, Adams faulted the current gold-for-oil exchange system, claiming it falls short of delivering lower oil costs. Due to the system’s alleged lack of value for Ghana, he suggested dismantling it.
“According to the government’s accountant, our liabilities as of 2022 December are over 810 billion and the interesting thing is the levels of the jump from 2021 to 2022. In 2021 it was reported that our total liabilities were 459 billion and by 2022 it had jumped 810 billion just in one year.
“What did we do in just that short period that accounted for this huge jump of our liabilities from 459 billion to 810 billion nothing to show but we found some of the answers to this jump when we had an encounter with the Bank of Ghana in relation to their foreign exchange receipts and payment that government of Ghana have designed and paying companies for no work done.”
“We observed in the progress report of payments by the Bank of Ghana using our foreign exchange that they paid some companies like MS Power China International Group Limited that are supposed to construct the Pwalugu irrigation project almost 12 million dollars when the work has been done.”
“You go to the site now there’s absolutely nothing it’s just a bush with about 25 pieces of blocks on the site but they have been dashed $12 million by this government. Again, another company, MS Motor Angels, was paid almost $3 million, that’s about $2,577,269 for the Tema Motorway extension project. This company had no contract to execute that project and did not do anything on the Tema -Motorway that required payment of, what, $2,577 million to them.”
