Deputy Communications Minister has said government gave approval for a private company to use the name of the presidency to raise sponsorship to fund the printing of presidential diaries.

Felix Kwakye Ofosu flatly denied Nana Akufo-Addo's claim that government spent $10 million to print the diaries but will not say how much the private company raised in sponsorship to print the diaries.

He told Joy News' co-Newsnite presenters Evans Mensah and Dzifa Bampoh government cannot be asked to account for the cost involved in producing the diaries because not a penny of the tax payers' money was expended.

"Proposals are received from entities who indicate that they will print it at no cost to government. They also tell us they will seek for sponsorship as a way of financing it.

"Government of Ghana has not awarded a contract to anybody to print diaries. Government is accountable to the taxes that Ghanaians pay to it. If government takes money from the consolidated fund to give to a company to print diaries, government is accountable for that," he explained, but that did not happen, he suggested.

When he was asked if government was not interested in finding out how much the private company raised in sponsorship before printing the diaries, he said:

"The accountability is between the [private] company and where it got the money from, that is corporate Ghana.".

"We are interested in receiving the diaries which we give to diplomats," he said, adding once the company satisfies the preliminary requirement of getting the approval of the presidency it can go ahead to produce the diaries.

Felix Kwakye Ofosu described as "tangential" questions about how much the company raised through sponsorship and challenged the NPP flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo to either substantiate the claims against the presidency or retract and apologise.

"Persons who seek to impugn the integrity of others must come with evidence," he fired at the NPP flagbearer.

It is neither clear yet which company was selected to print the diaries nor the tender processes involved in selecting them.

Nana Akufo-Addo while addressing participants on the final day of the party's International Conference at the NH Grand in Amsterdam, Holland, last Saturday alleged that the government spent $10 million on printing presidential diaries.

Government has challenged that claim with presidential staffer Stan Dogbe describing him as a "liar."

When a Deputy Communications Director of the NPP Anthony Karbo was called on Newsnite to substantiate the claims by Nana Addo he also failed to provide any evidence.

 He said if government's reaction to Nana Addo's claims is anything to go by then it is possible the company may have even raised more than $10 million to print the diaries.

"Nana Addo makes a claim; government denies the claim but fails to give a figure..." he said, adding for a company  "chosen in the secret" to use the name of the presidency to raise sponsorship  to print a presidential diary is an issue of concern."

He said Akufo-Addo will not apologise for the claims made.