4 times cabinet members, government appointees have contradicted each other

The Cabinet of Ghana, which consists of the president, the vice president and key ministers of state, is the highest decision-making body of the government.

So ordinarily, one may think that on important national issues, members of the Cabinet will be abreast will the same details or have an accepted position so that they will not appear to be contradicting each other in public.

But for some reason, members of Ghana’s Cabinet have on some occasions not been on the same page. This raises a lot of questions about the authenticity of government policies and also about the true intentions of the government.

Not only is this friction seen among cabinet members, but we have also seen instances of ministers of state and their deputies contradicting each other.

GhanaWeb takes a look at four times some members of Ghana’s Cabinet and government appointees have contradicted each other on important national issues.

Bawumia versus Ayorkor Botchwey on E-passport

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, in November 2021 during a lecture at Ashesi University stated that the Ghana Card has fully met the requirements for an E-Passport, adding that the Ghana Card would be recognised as an electronic passport in 197 countries by 2022.

“It is not widely known that the Ghana Card is also an Electronic Passport (E-Passport) that contains the biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travellers.

“We have been working with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) this year to globally activate the E-Passport function of the Ghana card and I am happy to announce that on 13th October 2021, Ghana officially became the 79th member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Public Key Directory (PKD) community. The ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD) is a central repository for exchanging the information required to authenticate E-Passports,” he said.

However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has explained that although the Ghana Card has the possibility of being used as an E-Passport, processes to be followed to ensure that have not yet been done.

According to her, the recognition given to Ghana by the ICAO does not mean that the Ghana Card has become an E-Passport yet.

She however indicated that if all processes are completed, the ID can serve the purpose of an E-Passport.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, she said,

“The Ghana Card has the potential to be used as an E-Passport… The Ghana Card is to serve as an optional travel document to be used in tandem with our biometric passport. At the moment, the Ghana Card cannot be used for travelling to other countries either within or outside ECOWAS as that will require bilateral agreement with countries for their authorities to accept the card as a travel document. The ministry is in active discussion with our ECOWAS members states and our bilateral partners to achieve this."

Bawumia versus other Cabinet members on taxing Momo (E-Levy)

Another issue members of the Cabinet didn’t necessarily agree on is the issue of taxing mobile money transactions through the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy). But on this front, it appeared to be a one against all fight.

With the exception of Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, all the other members of the Cabinet including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo appeared to agree in principle about the need for the E-Levy following its introduction.

They touted the levy as the saviour needed to get the country out of the current economic challenges.

The vice president, who is the chairman of Ghana’s Economic Management Team, on his part however did not utter a word of support for the levy. He had previously indicated that “it is unconscionable to tax mobile money (Momo) transactions.”

Dr Bawumia then explained that Momo is one of the surest mediums for poor people to transfer money and therefore should not be taxed because it will adversely affect the livelihood of the poor.

Amoako-Atta versus Ofori-Ataa and Kumah on E-Levy collateralization

Before the passage of the E-Levy, some economic experts in the country asserted that the government was so keen on implementing the level because it wants to use it as collateral for loans.

But Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta and his deputy John Kumah rejected these claims. John Kumah said that the monies for the levy will be used for the construction of roads and the YouStart programme among others. Ofori-Atta after initially quashing the claims said that he cannot give any assurance as to whether the E-Levy won't be collateralized or not.

“I can't give you an assurance that E-Levy won't be collateralized. The question is, you know that collateralization is bad. The assurance is where is the economy going, where are the instruments that we have in our basket and how are we going to deploy them. Unless you are categorical and you know something that I don't know but collateralization is bad. So I will not give you an assurance. I will at each point in time examine what we have and make a decision with cabinet as to how best we can use our resources as a country," he said.

However, the Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, who is a cabinet minister, indicated that the government is seeking to use the E-Levy as collateral for loans while speaking on the floor of Parliament.

“.. the government in its wisdom has called for the passage of E-Levy to bring in more revenue to build the road infrastructure of our country. So, government is looking forward to the passage of E-Levy which will bring in greater revenue that would be securitized and then used to raise a bond if possible, to build the road sector infrastructure. So government direction and policy is to bring in better form of collection because the toll revenue is built in the proposed E-Levy,” he said

Ofori-Atta versus John Kumah on Ghana going to the IMF

Many economic experts urged the government to go for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to help get the country out of the current economic hardships which, Ofori-Atta rejected. The minister said that the government was committed to not returning to the IMF because interventions and policies have been put in place to ensure sufficient macroeconomic gains for the local economy to bounce back on track.

“We have committed to not going back to the fund because, in terms of the interventions and policy we are right there, the fund knows that we are completely in the right direction. The issue is, validating the programmes that we have put in place and then, in my view, supporting us to find alternative ways of financing or re-financing our debt, reprofiling it,” Ofori-Atta said during a recent press briefing.

His deputy, John Kumah, however seemed to have a different view. According to him, the IMF will be the only hope for Ghana if the current domestic solution fails.

“If it [bringing the economy back to life] becomes impossible, then it is the only alternative to salvage our economy. But where we are now, we think we are in the position to salvage the economy or to try the homegrown policy we are adopting”.

“If our programmes fail us and we are not able to get the confidence and the results in the fiscal space discipline, which we have to impose on ourselves, then we don’t have a choice,” he said in interview with Joynews.

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