The Member of Parliament for Jaman South in the Brong Ahafo Region, Yaw Maama Afful, has rubbished the Ghana Statistical Service as an institution which should not be taken serious. According to him, the poor job done by the institution in the recently organized National Population Census is reason and enough bases for his cynicism. He had earlier been reported in the media as saying the Government Statistician, Dr. Grace Bediako is deliberately cooking figures to win favours from government. But in an interview with Joy News’ Sammy Darko the Member of Parliament denied attacking the personality of the statistician but maintained the figures her institution churned out cannot be seen as credible. “I am not saying she is not credible but I don’t believe anything that comes out of her outfit,” he said. The statistical service only last week released new figures on the performance of the economy in 2010 in which the growth rate was pegged at 7.7 per cent. The figures also indicate an improvement in the services sector which was said to be the fastest growing sector with 9.8 percent, followed by industry with 5.6 and 5.3 for agriculture. But Mr Afful the figures cannot be credible. “I am saying I do not believe anything that comes out from their outfit because of the way they handled the population census.” Asked if he has been privy to the full report on the economy the MP said he is yet to avail himself with the details but insisted given the experience with the population census he is right to be cynical. “One can discredit any government institution if one believes that that particular institution has done something in the past that one believes is not credible.” “…I have already made my position clear her that I do not personally believe anything that comes out of that outfit until we get the population numbers,” he said. Play the attached audio for excerpts of the interview Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana