Former Economic Advisor to Ghana’s former Vice President, Dr. Gideon Boako, has cautioned the Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, to desist from spreading falsehoods about the previous government.

According to Dr. Boako, it would be in the best interest of Ghanaians if the government published the balances in the sinking fund instead of propagating misinformation.

In a social media post, Dr. Boako argued that the recent payment to bondholders was merely a case of consolidating funds from various accounts into the sinking fund.

“If there were no funds left as buffers, where would they be sweeping from?” he questioned.

He further elaborated, “We had an auction excess on January 3 with over GH¢700 million which remained unspent. Additionally, we left GH¢3 billion in end-of-year revenue as a buffer, along with other unspent funds in various accounts. Of course, they also added their own auction excesses, but to claim that there were no significant buffers is simply untrue.”

Background

Felix Kwakye Ofosu has dismissed claims by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that they left financial buffers for servicing bondholder debts.

His remarks were in response to statements from former Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam and other NPP officials, who argued that their government had strategically positioned reserves to facilitate debt payments.

Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, February 19, Kwakye Ofosu strongly refuted the NPP’s assertions.

“For officials of the former government to claim that these payments resulted from their work, they need to point specifically to where those buffers were located.

“To pay the money, you need to find it and lodge it somewhere. That is what you call a buffer—pending payment at a given date.”

The debate centers on whether the previous government had indeed left behind financial reserves or if the current administration sourced the funds independently.

Kwakye Ofosu challenged the NPP to provide concrete proof, stating, “If NPP officials claim that we were able to make these payments because they left money in the central fund, it should be reflected in the statement of account.”

According to him, the figures simply do not support the NPP’s claims.

“We are talking about payments within the range of GH¢6 billion. And you and I know that $64,000 cannot amount to GH¢6 billion.”

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