Audio By Carbonatix
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has rejected accusations that government was not transparent with the processes leading to the ratification of the Agyapa Royalties Agreement.
He insists that government has made public all relevant details concerning the deal, therefore, claims that the agreement has been shrouded in secrecy are baseless.
"I am not sure what we did not give to the Parliamentarians through the Finance Committee during the various meetings that we had. I don't know what else is a mystery really about this transaction," Mr. Ofori-Atta said on the 'Newsfile' programme on JoyNews.
His comment comes on the back of allegations by some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the Minority in Parliament that government was not being forthcoming with details about the deal.
Since the deal was approved by Parliament on August 14, a lot of questions have been raised on its prudence and benefit to the country.
At a recent press conference, the CSOs had demanded the suspension of the deal over claims that the processes involved lacked transparency.
But reacting to the issues on Saturday on Newsfile, Mr. Ofori-Atta said details of the agreement have been out since 2010 when the NDC government attempted to approve it.
"This has been in effect, a 4-year process. I say 4 years because NDC had 2010 and 2011 in which they examined this module of paradigm and Parliament has been in discussions on the deal since 2018 so I don't know why anybody can pretend that it has not been public," he said.
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