Despite the widespread assertion that the Central Bank of Ghana is mandated to report its activities to parliament, the Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu says such claims are untrue.
According to the Member of Parliament for Suame in the Ashanti Region, the Bank of Ghana is not obligated by any law to report its activities to the house except for a report on foreign exchange receipts which he admits the Bank has religiously complied.
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu brought this clarification in his attempt to respond to the Minority counterpart for chastising the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for not informing Parliament before participating in the Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE).
The Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has since hit the roof, accusing the handlers of the central bank of mismanagement, amid calls for the governor and his deputies to resign from office.
“We call for the resignation of the governor of the central bank and his deputies within 21 days,” he said, and added, “We are resolved to embark on popular action to occupy the central bank and drive out the team of inept, callous and criminal mismanagers of the finances of this country and save the Bank of Ghana.”
The Majority Leader however believes his colleague on the other side is just engaging in cheap partisan politics.
Speaking on Accra-based Oman FM, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the role of the central bank in the national economy is known to his Minority counterpart, who is a former Deputy Minister of Finance.
He further justified the actions of the Central Bank that without their intervention the economy would have collapsed hence cautioning the NDC to desist from engaging in partisan politics with every national issue under consideration.
“We should not treat everything with politics; we shouldn’t make everything about NPP and NDC. Ato Forson should have known better because he has previously served as Deputy Minister of Finance and is familiar with the operations of the Bank of Ghana. As a result, politicizing BoG matters is bad for the country.”
He continued that “there is no law that mandates the BoG to report its daily activities to Parliament. The law only mandates the BoG to report foreign exchange receipts to Parliament, and the BoG has always complied with this provision. The BoG does not report directly to Parliament,” he stressed.
“The constitution says that if you pass any law that is inconsistent with the constitution, that law is null and void. It’s either the Minority are over exaggerating issues or have not had time to examine the facts of the matter,” he intimated.
