Ofori-Atta to face Parliament’s Appointment Committee today

Finance Minister-designate Ken Ofori-Atta is expected to be vetted today Parliament’s Appointments Committee.

Ahead of his vetting, a group known as the Dynamic Youth Movement of Ghana (DYMOG), has petitioned the Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Bagbin, against the former Finance Minister’s re-appointment.

The petition, signed the Executive Convener of DYMOG, Edward Tuttor, on 6 February 2021, was hinged on grounds that:

“Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, while being the Minister responsible for finance in the preceding Government, was found the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to have occupied a private office of emolument, being the office of a director in Ventures and Acquisition Limited (a private company)”.

According to the petition, Mr. Ofori-Atta occupied the private office “without the due permission of the then-Right Honourable Speaker of Parliament”.

The petition also noted that Mr. Ofori-Atta was found CHRAJ “to have superintended the issuance of 95% of the government of Ghana sovereign bonds to a company (Franklin Templeton Investment Ltd)in which his business and close relation name Trevor Trefgarne was a director, without making the said bond transaction open to the investor-public for competitive bidding”.

The group also mentioned in the petition, the Finance Minister-designate’s failure, and refusal “to declare his shareholding in Data Bank Financial Services Limited, Data Bank Brokerage Limited, and Data Bank Financial Holdings Limited, to the Auditor-General before taking office” in the immediate past government, contrary to Article 286(1)(a) of the 1992 Constitution.

Source: Class FM