The Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has rejected claims by the Director of Communications for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), to the effect that he was part of Bank of Ghana's board when it commenced processes for the construction of its new head office building. 

According to him, the claims are completely false and should be dismissed my all well-meaning Ghanaians. 

In statement issued on Saturday, August 12, the former Deputy Finance Minister said the BoG under the erstwhile Mahama administration never awarded any contract for construction of a new head office. 

He thus challenged Mr Ahiagbah to provide any contrary evidence in his possession to back his claim. 

“For the records, the Bank of Ghana under the erstwhile Mahama/NDC administration never awarded a contract for the construction of this new Head Office.”

“We, therefore challenge the likes of Ahiagbah and his NPP apologists to show evidence to the contrary if they have any.”

“Second, the Bank of Ghana never purchased a land anywhere in Accra for the construction of a new Head Office building,” he said. 

Dr Ato Forson still maintained that the construction of the project is unnecessary and should be aborted by the central bank. 

“We maintain that the decision by the current Bank of Ghana Management and Board to construct an ultra-modern Head Office building at a time that the Bank of Ghana has recorded a loss of GhS60.8 billion and a negative equity of GHS55.1 billion; at a time when the ordinary Ghanaian is struggling to make ends meet, is a reckless and misplaced priority.”

While contributing to JoyNews’ Newsfile programme on Saturda, Mr Ahiagbah alleged that Dr Ato Forson was part of the Bank of Ghana board that began the process towards the construction of a new headquarters building. 

According to him, the conversation about the construction of a new headquarters building began in the 90s, but processes towards implementation started years later. 

He insisted that the now Minority Leader who was serving on the Bank's board as a Deputy Finance Minister under the Mahama-led administration, was part of the negotiations with an individual to purchase the land situated around Achimota forest.

He added that although the BoG Board pulled out of the negotiations at some point, a settlement cost of $1.2 million had to be paid to the individual. 

“He [Ato Forson] was a member of the Bank of Ghana board at the point where they were in government and this conversation about building a new headquarters didn’t start today but in the 1990s when the Bank of Ghana decided to build a whole new place due to the current location being caught up with surrounding developments,” Ahiagbah claimed.

“I’m mentioning Ato Forson because he was part of the Board that was looking for a parcel of land to buy for this particular purpose of building a new BoG headquarters while he was serving as part of the Bank's board to the extent that there was an individual who was offering a piece of land around Achimota forest for $2.5 million per acre,” he added. 

But the Minority Leader says the claims are false and should be ignored completely.