Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the majority leader, claims that after the IMF negotiations and the reading and appropriation of the 2023 budget, President Akufo-Addo did not categorically state that he would fire Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and Minister of State at the Finance Ministry Charles Adu Boahen.
That was not said by the president. On JoyNews’ PM Express, he stated, “To quote him, he said let’s finish with this, the IMF, and the budget subsequently; we should hang on until after these.”
About 80 MPs from the New Patriotic Party called for the Finance Minister to be fired right away.
They said that Ken Ofori-continued Atta’s tenure in office was delaying the country’s request for an IMF bailout because the minister had lost all credibility.
In order to avoid a boycott of Parliament, they petitioned the president to either dismiss him or reinstate him.
However, the President had pleaded with them to give the troubled Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta more time to wrap up talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before any resignation speculation was brought up.
According to documents made accessible to JoyNews, a $3 billion payment support agreement with the IMF could be finalized in three weeks.
The president worries that if Ken Ofori-Atta is fired or forced to quit, this could be disturbed. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu says that the President’s comment can be taken in different ways, but that he has not said directly that he will fire the Finance Minister and the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry.
“It might be. It’s possible to take any of these as meaning, “Okay, hang on after the events, then we come back and discuss,” or “Hold on after the event, I will act.”
The phrase “I will act” does not always imply “I will do that.” We were advised by the President to hold on until… So it might be that I’ll revisit it for consideration or that I’ll cave to your requests, ” he remarked.
“It was urged to wait until after these occurrences, the IMF negotiations, and the budget. In fact, I went so far as to add, “If the budget is submitted by a person, you’d require that same person to shepherd the appropriations,” when there seemed to be some confusion about what happened after the budget was presented.
In order to remove any potential for confusion, he continued, “I suggested that we include the appropriation so that there is no question in anyone’s mind that after the budget has been read, agitations will start anew.”
He has stated that the MPs are still discussing the issue in the interim.
We’ll keep talking, and I think we can come to an agreeable agreement on this.
