General News of Friday, 5 April 2019

Source: peacefmonline.com

Akufo-Addo has 'no confidence' in Ken Ofori-Atta - Ricketts-Hagan

Ricketts-Hagan, Former Deputy Minister of Finance Ricketts-Hagan, Former Deputy Minister of Finance

Former Deputy Minister of Finance George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan says it is very obvious President Akufo-Addo has lost all confidence he reposed in the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.

Using the analogy of a master and a garden boy, he said the Finance Minister should have advised himself.

Speaking during a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cape Coast South said for President Akufo-Addo to ask that an Economic Management Team be put together and a bipartisan committee set up to investigate the structural causes of the depreciation of the cedi against major foreign currencies and make recommendations to combat them, means the Finance Minister is ‘incompetent’.

To him, if the President really had any confidence in him, he (President) would have believed that the Finance Minister would be able to put things right in the economy.

“I feel sad for the Finance Minister . . . it seems the President is losing confidence in him, for the President to ask for a team to be put together like the Economic Management Team, it means you are incompetent,” he indicated.

Town Hall Meeting

Commenting on the Town Hall meeting organized by the Economic Management Team (EMT), the former Deputy Finance Minister said when he first heard the Vice President's speak; he wrongly thought he was at an ‘NPP rally’.

"The propaganda continues and never stops . . . The Finance Minister came to parliament and said the same thing . . . it’s like he came to preempt what the Vice President was going to say . . . I wasn’t sure I was listening to an EMT Town Hall Meeting or an NPP rally; these are the same people who came to parliament on the same issue through a different mouthpiece," Hon Ricketts-Hagan stated.

However, he was not surprised at the data or figures churned out by the Vice President because “he is fond of using economic numbers to mislead us”.