A former director of the legal division of the Ministry of Finance, Mangowa Ghanney has noted that Ofori-Atta’s Databank has not been awarded contracts “fraudulently”.

According to him, among bidders for government business, Databank was among the best.

He also added that Databank was even doing government business before Ken Ofori-Atta became Finance Minister.

“And as far as I know, nothing has ever been handed over to Databank on the silver platter. Databank has always had to compete with any other institution to be part of what the Ministry of Finance does,” he is quoted by Asaasenews.com.

The former director also noted that Databank’s involvement in the government’s business was a result of the Ministry of Finance’s encouragement of local participation among Ghanaian businesses.

“Ministry of Finance has for a few years now, had the policy to encourage local participation, and to do this we always tendered when there were projects available, and we evaluated and picked the best responses, and Databank happened to be one of those companies that we picked.

“And this is not only during this Finance Minister’s tenure but, this was before this minister’s tenure,” Ghanney clarified.

“The Ministry of Finance has worked with Databank, and we have worked with them and with other local financial institutions because they presented themselves as able to present the task,” he added.

The finance minister has come under intense pressure to resign or be removed after various allegations have been levelled against him.

One of such is the awarding of contracts to his bank, Databank where the Bank benefits from loans that Ghana borrows.

But the finance minister denied the allegations saying they were “unfounded and untrue”.

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