The Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has said that the Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson should have known better regarding his utterances on the operations of the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
He said that as a former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr Ato Forson should have known that the BoG does not directly report to Parliament.
“The Bank of Ghana Governor does not directly report to Parliament. We should not make everything about NPP and NDC. Ato Forson should have known better because he has held the position of Deputy Minister of Finance before and knows the operations of the Bank of Ghana. So if you politicize issues of the BoG, it is not good for the country.
“There is no law that mandates the BoG to report its daily activities to Parliament. The Law only mandates the BoG to report foreign exchange receipts to Parliament and the BoG has always complied to this provision. The BoG does not report directly to Parliament.
The Constitution says that if you pass any law that is inconsistent with the Constitution, that law is null and void. It’s either the minority are over exaggerating issues or have not had time to examine the facts of the matter.
“The response from the BoG addresses all the inconsistencies and falsehoods peddled against the institution. Yes, the country went through some difficulties which required that the BoG must intervene. If not for the international reserves built by the BoG , which was close to 10 billion, we would have really suffered. The BoG supported the country with about 4 billion of its 10 billion international reserves to support the situation,” the Suame Member of Parliament told Oman FM.
The Minority in Parliament accused the Bank of lacking reasonable justification for the substantial amounts of money printed in 2021 and 2022 to finance the government.
They contend that the action of the BoG is in direct breach of the governing law.
They note that the printed amounts—GHS 35 billion in 2021 and GHS 42 billion in 2022—are far beyond the legally acceptable threshold of 5% of the previous fiscal year’s total revenue.
The statement maintains that the Bank of Ghana’s actions in printing money to finance the government’s needs in 2021 and 2022 were in direct violation of the law, asserting that such conduct constitutes a criminal offense under Section 67 of the Bank of Ghana Act.