A private legal practitioner Jonathan Amable has filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking to immediately stop government from issuing Treasury Bills.

Mr. Amable in the application is arguing that government can only go ahead to issue Treasury Bills if it secures prior approval from Parliament. 

The arguments were captured in the application filed at the Registry of the Supreme Court on November 11, 2024.

The Motion for Interlocutory Injunction is seeking to stop government and its agents like the Finance Ministry and the Bank Ghana from borrowing through Treasury Bills. 

Details of the application

The application cites the Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame as the Defendant.

Lawyers for the plaintiff have told JOYBUSINESS that the office of the Attorney General has been served hence any attempt by government to issue a new Treasury Bill on Friday November 22, 2024 will be illegal.

Legal Arguments

The Motion for Interlocutory Injunction is seeking to restrain government from undertaking any activity which constitutes borrowing or debt financing, until the final determination of the suit  “  upon grounds contained  in the accompanying  the affidavit  and for such  further orders that will be determined by the court”.

The plaintiff further argued that based on the Financial Administration Act and Bank of Ghana Amendment Act,  Parliament of Ghana has created  a statutory framework  that enables the state to borrow and this approach adopted by Government does not fall in line with this.

The application stressed the need for parliamentary approval since the borrowings create repayment obligations for the state.

 Implications

Government is planning to raise about 78 billion cedis in new borrowings through Treasury Bills for 2024.

This was captured in the Treasury Bills Calendar for the 2024.  It is not sure for now how the application could impact government’s finances.

The Finance Ministry is for instance hoping to raise 10.8 billion cedis in the last quarter of this year.

Funds raised through Treasury Bills have been a major source of revenue for government.