A pro-democracy group is demanding the immediate prosecution of two deputy Finance Ministers and the Director of Budget under the Kufour administration for allegedly misapplying state funds. According to the Ghana Development Centre, Messieurs Gyan Baffuor and Akoto Osei also acted in breach of financial laws by disbursing funds from the consolidated funds without recourse to Parliament. The group insists the actions by the past government officials have led to needless suffering for Ghanaians. Samuel George, a spokesperson of the group in an interview with Joy News blamed the recent hikes in petroleum prices to the sky rocketing TOR debt which he said was left unpaid because the TOR Recovery Levy was diverted by the NPP. “The recent fuel price hikes have been the results of a systematic build up of debt at the TOR that has gone a great distance to influence the kind of hikes we have seen,” he said. He was particularly appalled that the TOR levy which was instituted by the NPP government to defray the debt incurred by TOR was misapplied in flagrant violation of the law that set up the levy. “If you look at the past eight years under President J.A. Kufuor you discover that there has been a massive growth of the level of debt at the TOR and when you put this vis-a-vis the fact that there was the TOR levy for close to five years, you ask your self what happened." He said preliminary investigations conducted by the group show that the TOR levy was "severely misapplied." He said the HIPC funds, multi sectoral accounts were all misapplied for "reasons which were not constitutionally mandated to be used for,” he charged. He produced documents signed by the former officials directing the Accountant General to disburse monies from the TOR levy. But the Policy Advisor of the NPP and who was the then government spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance under the Kufuor administration says the the group must have its facts right if it wants to be taken serious. Kweku Kwarteng dismissed the group’s claims that the TOR debt is responsible for the recent hikes, saying the TOR Debt Recovery Levy forms a drop in the ocean of price build up announced, adding, it will be disingenuous for anybody to suggest the levy is responsible for the hikes. He also dismissed claims that the TOR levy was severely misapplied. According to him, monies accrued from the levy were paid into the Bank of Ghana account and which was subsequently used to defray part of the debt. He attributed the rise in the TOR debt to under recoveries which he explained was as a result of subsidies paid by the then government when crude oil shot above the 100 dollar per barrel mark to 147 dollars per barrel. On the diversion of funds to the Ministry of Information, Mr Kwarteng noted, the Ministry as part of its budget allocation used part of HIPC funds to implement its policies. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana