The Deputy Chairman of Parliament’s Legal and Constitutional Committee, George Loh has rejected claims by the minority that Ghana’s bailout programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) needs parliamentary approval.
According to him, the deal has already been approved by Parliament.
He explained that the Minister of Finance during one of his appearance in Parliament presented some home grown policies which the House approved.
The legislator said government later presented the policies to the IMF for support and was approved.
“…We presented the proposal to IMF and they said yes it’s okay. That proposal itself was presented to Parliament…the thing that we described as homegrown programme, didn’t the Finance Minister bring it to Parliament? Didn’t we go through it; didn’t we approve it? Which of them didn’t we approve? So they [Minority] should come again.”
George Loh was responding to the Minority in Parliament who are calling on the IMF to freeze further disbursements of monies to Ghana, alleging that the deal with the fund was not constitutional because it did not receive parliamentary approval.
Addressing the press on Tuesday, the Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei and legal practitioner, Afenyo Markin argued that though Article 181 (3) of the Constitution states that “no loan shall be raised by the government on behalf of itself or any other public institution or authority otherwise than by or under the authority of an Act of Parliament,” President Mahama violated the law and approved the deal without recourse to Parliament.
They also charged President Mahama to “take immediate corrective measures and call on the Speaker to cause Parliament to be recalled to approve” the deal.
But watering down the minority’s demands on Eyewitness News, George Loh said the minority’s claims is to “distract attention.”
“We have a programme that Parliament had approved already and has been presented to the IMF for support. So what is wrong with this? I mean let’s get serious in this country and stop this thing that any time the NPP is in opposition they come and say certain things just to distract attention. I am saying that from all indications we do not need any parliamentary approval,” he insisted.
The IMF has subsequently, disbursed over $200 million out of a total of $918 million under the current bailout arrangement to Ghana.
They first released about $114 million and later, $116 million after assessing how Ghana was performing.
Source: citifmonline
