Head of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation at the Presidency, Dr. Joe Tony Aidoo says former president John Agyekum Kufuor behaved irresponsibly by selling government's 25 per cent "golden shares" in  Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC).

Speaking on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM Wednesday, Dr. Aidoo said the decision to sell government's shares in AGC to Anglogold Ashanti in 2004, saw the only indigenous mining firm "evaporate into thin air".

"The only indigenous company we set up, nurtured and promoted to international stature was destroyed by a previous government. The Kufuor regime came out and destroyed the Ashanti Goldfields...by selling the 25 percent golden share that gave the government of Ghana the corporate veto over any corporate decision taken by AGC.

"At the end of it all our shares evaporated into thin air," he said.

"I was holding four million Ghana cedis shares. At the end of the day, the value of my shares were 4,000 ghana cedis".

The former deputy Defense Minister however, defended a decision by the Jerry John Rawlings' administration in 1994, to sell 20-25 of its interest in AGC in a share floatation.

He said the transaction saw AGC listed on the London and Ghana stock exchanges. It was the largest floatation ever organised by any gold mining company, Dr. Aidoo added.

"The government [Rawlings' regime] sold to bring the AGC into international stature; within the period of two years AGC shares rose from about $3 to $25 on the New York and London stock exchanges".

"What the government did was that it retained a percentage of its investment that gave it the most important point; a veto power...It was irresponsible for the successive government to have disposed off that veto," he added.