The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has berated the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, for demanding the immediate resignation of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor and his two deputies.
He wants the Minority Leader to stop engaging in “partisan politics” with national issues.
The Suame lawmaker, speaking in an interview on Oman FM on Monday, August 14, said the Minority Leader, who is a former Deputy Finance Minister, knows the operations of the central bank and must not be engaging in cheap politics.
“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 politicise issues of the BoG, it is not good for the country,” Mr Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said.
He also insisted that the central bank is not under any legal obligation to report its daily activities to Parliament.
The Suame legislator stated that the law only requires the BoG to report foreign exchange receipts to Parliament – a mandate, according to him, the Bank has consistently fulfilled.
“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 with 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,” he said.
The Minority in Parliament on Tuesday, August 8, demanded the resignation of Dr Ernest Addison and his deputies, levelling grave allegations of gross financial mismanagement within the Bank of Ghana.
The NDC MPs claimed that Dr Addison must quit his post for supervising the ¢60 billion loss the Central Bank recorded for the year-ending 2022.
The Minority also alleged that the Bank of Ghana failed to report its activities to Parliament.
BoG in a statement attributed the losses to the government’s domestic debt restructuring activities and the depreciation of the cedi.
This position the Majority Leader has affirmed stating that no wrongdoing has occurred.