IMANI President Franklin Cudjoe says the docile attitude of the outgoing Governor of the Bank of Ghana hastened his early exit from the central bank.

Despite enjoying immunity from removal by politicians, Dr. Henry Kofi Wampah was “diffident”  and “too subservient” to politicians and failed to insist on doing the right thing, he said.

The Governor bows out by April 1, at least five months before his was due to retire. He proceeds on accumulated leave.

Judgement on his four-year tenure began immediately the news broke Tuesday. New Juaben South MP, Dr Assibey Yeboah described his tenure as the worst in comparison with at least three previous Governors.

Weighing in, the policy expert Franklin Cudjoe said the outgoing Governor made observers in the industry miss the leadership of his predecessor Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur.

He said Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur who is now Vice-President,was bold to fend off attempts by the Finance Ministry to dip its hands into the treasury.

Government must not borrow from BoG, any more than 10% of the previous year’s revenue, Franklin noted and recalled that Amissah Arthur pointed this out to the then Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Duffour when government felt inclined to take more.

"Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur is typically one who could tell the Finance minister to basically go to hell when it comes to statutory payments," Franklin recalled.

But any trace of this trait is non-existent in Dr. Wampah, Franklin Cudjoe analysed.

Dr. Henry Kofi Wampah

Dr. Wampah was literally ball-watching when the Finance minister borrowed about 200million cedis from the National Health Insurance Scheme, crippling the health service provider.

The NHIS, which receives statutory payments of 2.5% VAT, could collapse by June 2016, Franklin Cudjoe’s IMANI Ghana.

“I think Wampah should have been bold to say statutory payments are statutory payments”, Franklin stressed what he believes should have been the posture of the governor.

For a government lampooned for its borrowing frenzy, Franklin Cudjoe believes Dr. Wampah ought to have been “bolder in reining in the voracious appetite of the finance ministry”.

While Franklin conceded statutory payments are not the direct responsibility of the BoG, he, however, explained that government's haphazard management of statutory payments affects the BoG.

It takes a bold Governor to push the government to do the right thing, he said.

The Bank of Ghana, tasked to regulate macro, micro and monetary policies, failed to contain a depreciating Ghana cedi.

The Wampah-led BoG in an attempt to fix the crisis, imposed forex rules that made it unlawful for individuals to withdraw money from their dollar accounts, any amount more than $10,000.

Franklin called the forex measures “crazy”. When national leaders met for a Senchi Forum in May 2014,  Dr. Wampah said he was waiting for the Finance ministry to show fiscal discipline to address the crisis.

Listen to audio