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BoG did no wrong in taking $222m oil money – Assibey-Yeboah

  • SOURCE: | qwesa2big
  • oil dollarMember of Parliament (MP) for New Juaben South, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah has defended the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for sweeping the $222 million oil money from the Annual Budget Funding Account.

    He said the Bank may have taken the money because government owes it arguing this is done sometimes when government fails to pay monies owed to the Bank.

    The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), in its 2015 semi-annual report, found that BoG had swept $222 million of oil money from the Annual Budget Funding Account (ABFA).

    The report further said the act by the Central Bank compelled government to dip its hands into the stabilization funds to finance many of its operation and projects.

    Speaking to JOYNEWS, Chairman of PIAC, Professor Buah-Basuah described the situation as unfair adding the Bank need to return the money.

    He said the money taken by the Central Bank was earmarked for an incubation project and if it was not returned, the project will suffer.

    Buah-Basuah also noted that the Committee found in its auditing of the oil money, that some of the monies meant for a capacity building were diverted into different projects.

    He said in the area of agriculture modernization, the Committee found out that some of the monies earmarked for the project were spent on fertilizer acquisition which falls outside the project.

    But speaking to JOYNEWS, Dr. Assibey-Yeboah who is also a member of the Finance Committee in Parliament said the Bank did no wrong by taking the money.

    According to him, the Central Bank took the 1 billion euro bond issued by the government in 2014 because government owed it adding the Bank does this when it needs some monies to fund its monetary operations.

    He said the government is aware of this act by the Central Bank adding the Minister of Finance raised the issue when he presented the 2016 Budget Statement in Parliament in November 2015.

    “It is not as if government is oblivious of what the Bank of Ghana is doing. I don’t think the Bank of Ghana is going to pay any attention to PIAC,” he said.

    Dr. Assibey-Yeboah said all the Central Bank cares about now is how to take its money owed it by the government arguing, “they don’t know ABFA money [and] they don’t know monies going anywhere”.

    Source: http://www.myjoyonline.com/politics/2016/March-31st/bog-did-no-wrong-in-taking-222m-oil-money-dr-assibey-yeboah.php

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