Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has said the Minority in Parliament will summon the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, before the House to answer for the purported printing of GH¢22.04bn without approval.

Dr. Ato Forson in an interview on Newsnight on Tuesday said the printing of the money is in breach of Section 30 of Act 612.

“We [the Minority] are going to haul the Governor of the Central Bank to Parliament to account to us why he had breached Section 30 of Act 612 as amended and he is failing to report to Parliament. We are going to haul him because it is material and he should inform us,” he stated.

Dr. Forson yesterday, July 25, 2022, alleged that the Bank of Ghana has printed an amount of ¢22.04 billion to finance the government’s budget without parliamentary approval.

His assertion was in response to the 2022 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review which was presented to Parliament by the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.

But the Central Bank in a statement today debunked the claims by Dr. Ato Forson.

The Central Bank said the amount of ¢22.04 billion “represents net claims on Government, and not new currency printed to support the Government’s budget.”

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It said the net claims constitute four components; GoG stocks and bonds sold by commercial banks to Bank of Ghana under repurchase agreements, IMF SDR allocation disbursed to Government through Bank of Ghana, draw-down of government’s own deposits held with Bank of Ghana and negative balance on government’s account with Bank of Ghana.

However, Dr. Ato Forson insists that the Bank of Ghana printed new currencies to support the government’s budget.

The Minority Spokesperson on Finance is not convinced by the explanation given by the Central bank.

“The [Finance] Minister’s statement that he submitted to Parliament says that they did not draw down on any SDR, now the Bank of Ghana is telling us that they draw down on SDR, who is saying the truth here?

“The document that he had actually released in the last few minutes clearly confirms to me that something is certainly wrong because the SDR as per the document before me, page 97 appendix 2A tells me that they did not draw down on any SDR from IMF as exceptional financing,” he added.