Private legal practitioner Jonathan Amable has filed an injunction at the Supreme Court, seeking an immediate suspension of the government’s borrowing activities on the treasury bills market.
According to the writ, Mr. Amable is calling for an end to treasury bill issuances that finance government operations, citing the government’s failure to secure parliamentary approval for these transactions.
He argues that this approach breaches provisions in the 1992 Constitution, warning that unchecked borrowing will continue to harm the economy.
The Attorney General of Ghana is named as the defendant, and the injunction application requests the Supreme Court to rule that the actions of the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana are unconstitutional.
The application partially reads, “The relevant borrowing contracts, conducted without parliamentary approval, are liable to be declared void for unconstitutionality. This poses a grave risk to Ghana’s financial sector, impacting banks, savings and loans companies, micro-finance institutions, asset management companies, insurance companies, pension funds, and individual investors. The state’s unconstitutional actions jeopardize the capital of Ghanaian investors and the financial sector at large.”
The filing highlights violations of Section 30 of the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612), and Section 61 of the Public Financial Management Act, which mandate parliamentary oversight for borrowing via temporary advances, loans from the Bank of Ghana, and the issuance of treasury bills, bonds, and other debt instruments.
Mr. Amable’s injunction request is narrowly focused on stopping new borrowing transactions and does not seek to disrupt the government’s obligations on existing debt, provided that repayments do not involve funds from new, unapproved borrowing.
Source: Adomonline
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