Gabby defends Ofori-Atta, says Mahama also refused to sack Terpker in 2015

Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has rejected calls for the sacking of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta as advocated by former President John Dramani Mahama.

According to him, the Ofori-Atta had shown creativity in his management of the economy and instead of harsh critique, what he required was the support of all Ghanaians.

Gabby was reacting to Mahama’s call for the ouster of Ofori-Atta – with the main reason that the Minister was to blame for the economic downturn for which reason government is heading to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.

Gabby in rejecting Mahama’s call cited how the former president had also refused to fire his Finance Minister in 2015 despite a strong push from within the National Democratic Congress.

“We remember so well, Sir, agitations within NDC for you to sack Seth Terkper, your finance minister. You stuck by him, though Ghanaians were perplexed why IMF in 2014/15, with all the new additional revenues from oil, and no global crisis like now,” he tweeted on June 2.

Mahama in a June 2 Facebook post advised Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to ring changes in the economic management of the country.

He specifically mentioned the roles of Ofori-Atta and VP Mahamudu Bawumia – head of the Economic Management Team, EMT.

According to him, Ken Ofori-Atta has lost credibility and trust of stakeholders after he supervised the disastrous collapse of the economy. He urged the Akufo-Addo to immediately take a bold decision to replace his finance minister.

His post read in part: “the Finance Minister who has supervised the disastrous collapse of the economy cannot and should not be part of the team of negotiators. He has lost credibility and the trust and confidence of stakeholders in our economy.

“President Akufo-Addo must take a bold decision to replace his finance minister immediately with a more assured and competent person who is willing and able to work tirelessly to turn our almost hopeless situation around,” it added.

He also called for the removal of Vice President Bawumiaas the head of the Economic Management Team to enable the President to reconstitute the team.

Barely 24 hours after he (Mahama) advised the Akufo-Addo led-administration that the current economic challenges can only be salvaged with help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), government is heading to the IMF.

Speaking at a forum on the Economy in Accra on Thursday, June 30 2022, Mr. Mahama indicated that the IMF and its technocrats will come with solid policies such as fiscal discipline among others to improve the nation’s macro-economic front.

“In the last few days, there has been talk from some regime actors about a potential or impending IMF programme. Due to the nature and depth of our economic problems, this government virtually has no other sustainable option.

“IMF programs come with fiscal consolidation and insistence on fiscal discipline which can lead to some recovery and improvements on the macro-economic front,” the NDC 2020 Presidential Candidate disclosed.

He continued: “This government has however so mismanaged our economy and left it in such a terrible state that fiscal consolidation alone will not do the trick.”

“Any IMF programme should be preceded or done jointly with discussions with our creditors to achieve debt restructuring.”

In less than 24 hours after these statements were made by Mahama, President Akufo-Addo has authorized the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to commence formal engagements with the International Monetary Fund.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Information, on July 1, 2022, the decision is to invite Fund to support an economic programme put together by the government of Ghana.

“The engagement with the IMF will seek to provide balance of payment support as part of a broader effort to quicken Ghana’s build back in the face of challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and, recently, the Russia Ukraine crises,” the statement indicated