Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, says Ghana’s finances have been grossly mismanaged by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, especially during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This he says justifies calls for the dismissal or resignation of the Minister.

According to him, contrary to the much touted notion that Ghana’s Covid situation was better managed in comparison to the country’s neighbours, such claims are false.

“Before Covid our economy was the second largest and second best performing economy within the West African sub region. And I heard a lot of the NPP dudes; they say ‘oh we managed Covid than our neighbours’ that is utterly not true.

“The best way to manage Covid was to prevent lives being lost. If you take percentage terms, lives were lost in Ghana than in Togo, than in Burkina, than in Senegal, even if we want to look at it on percentage terms.

“The point I’m making is that none of our neighbours went to the IMF to borrow 3billion dollars in the name of Covid. None. As a matter of fact, Burkina went for 20 million dollars. None of our neighbours went to the World Bank for 904 million dollars that is what we borrowed,” he said on JoyNews’ PM Express.

Murtala Mohammed stated that despite the fact that the country’s neighbours had not accessed the kind of funds Ghana had during the pandemic, they had recorded relatively fewer deaths in comparison to Ghana.

Meanwhile, the Akufo-Addo-led administration had depleted the nation’s financial reserves under the guise of fighting the pandemic, he said.

“We went for 3billion dollars in the name of Covid, none of our neighbours went to the World Bank for 904 million dollars, none of our neighbours dipped their hands into all manner of funds established by the President you described as incompetent to the extent that monies or funds established by President Mahama, you dipped your filthy hands in them, messed up the money. Absolutely filthy! And I will tell you why I say it’s filthy,” he stated.

He continued, “Today we were deceived. Part of good governance is transparency and honesty. We were told we were being given free water and free electricity. When people questioned what they were using the money for, they said, ‘o we gave you free water and free electricity’ only for us to be tricked.

‘We are now made to pay for the so-called free water and electricity, and mind you it is even unethical. Not everybody in Ghana enjoyed the free water and free electricity. The likes of myself and you never enjoyed that. Today we’re all being made to pay for something we never enjoyed.”

He further stated that while the Minister had implemented the Covid levy despite protests from the Minority caucus in Parliament and some Civil Society groups, same Minister has refused to account to the people how much money has been accrued since the levy was imposed.

“The covid levy we’re paying, we do not even know how much government spent in the so-called free water and free electricity yet we’re paying the tax. I have filed a question, in fact I filed the question before we rose; wanting the Minister of Finance to come to Parliament to tell us how much did the state spend in providing the free water and free electricity to us? How much have they collected so far?

“Assuming government spent 3 million Ghana cedis in providing the free water and free electricity and now with the covid levy we’re paying, assuming we have paid more than 3 million that is robbery. That is absolutely robbery. Because you imposed a tax for a purpose, people have done that obligation which is even unethical because that tax is paid by everybody.

“So the point I’m making is that this Minister has no success story, the only reason why the Minister is still there is because he uses the name Ofori-Atta,” he said.