The Minority in Parliament has dismissed claims by Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, that the National Democratic Congress administration is to blame for the country’s current debt burden, which compelled government to seek support from the International Monetary Fund.

The Vice President attributed the pressures of the banking sector clean-up and the energy sector capacity payments to failings by the John Mahama administration that handed over power to the New Patriotic Party government in 2017.

Dr. Bawumia made the comments on Thursday, while speaking at the launch of Accra Business School’s IT programmes.

Addressing the media, Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson called on the Akufo-Addo administration to take responsibility for its mess.

Dr. Ato Forson referred Dr. Bawumia to his earlier assurances to Ghanaians that the government had put in place adequate measures to prevent a return to the IMF.

“In April this year, the same Dr. Bawumia, told the whole nation that the Economic Management Team under his chairmanship had put in place adequate measures to prevent the nation from going for an IMF programme. Today, Ghana is back to the IMF not even in good shape, but in dire economic situation. Is this not a spite of the Vice President’s assurance?” he quizzed.

“You will agree that we are not in normal times. Indeed, we are in very perilous moments; we are in uncharted waters; there are difficult moments ahead and so, what we expect from the head of the Economic Management Team is some modicum of respect, honesty, integrity, and above all seriousness when it comes to governance and the issue of the economy. This is not the time for theatre comedy, and obviously not the time for IT jocular pranks. We are tired of the monotonous blame game on former President Mahama.”

Ato Forson at the press conference said: “Rather than taking responsibility and building consensus to tackle the excruciating and untold hardships the people of Ghana are currently facing, Dr. Bawumia rather chose to resort to the frivolous and unsubstantiated blame game.”

He advised Dr. Bawumia to accord the office he occupies the respect it deserves.

“The office of the Vice-President is a serious office and must be treated as such. He cannot metamorphose into a propaganda poster boy, thus serving as a conduit for peddling falsehoods.”

“From all indications, the Vice-President president has clearly lost focus, making his office look irrelevant while demeaning the standards expected of a Vice-President,” he added.

Dr. Ato Forson further urged Dr. Bawumia to concentrate on his core duties as head of the economic team and allow the Minister of Information to perform his duties as prescribed by convention.