Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, has lambasted the finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta for putting up a defence of the Bank of Ghana's leadership despite the huge impairment loss of GH¢60 billion recorded in 2022.
He described the Finance Minister’s recent defence as rather "unfortunate and sad" after he says the Central Bank did not adhere to reporting on its comprehensive income statement, which details its profit or loss position.
Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, the Bolgatanga Central lawmaker argued that, “Non-governmental organisations that are not profit-making don’t report comprehensive income statements and they don’t disclose profits or losses. They disclose deficits or surpluses. Is Ken Ofori-Atta aware that because of its special mandate and its need to make a profit or loss that is why the international financial standards require such entities to report comprehensive income statements revealing profit or loss?”
He further pointed out that the Central Bank Governor [Dr Ernest Addison] and his team must be held accountable for the losses recorded in 2022.
“We need to know what happened to the money that was lost. We need to know why the BoG was unable to manage its finances effectively. We need to know what steps are being taken to prevent such losses from happening again,” Issac Adongo is quoted by citinewsroom.com
Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana has occasionally described the losses incurred in 2022 as technical while arguing that the Central Bank had to step in to salvage the economy from an imminent collapse at the height of the economic meltdown in the country.
The Central Bank Governor, Dr Ernest Addison said majority of the impairment losses culminated from haircuts associated with government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme which saw it take about 50 percent of the loss.
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Ranking Member of Parliament's Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo