A Member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Isaac Adongo, says the appointment of former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta as Senior Presidential Advisor and Special Envoy for International Finance and Private Sector Investments will make it difficult for the new Finance Minister to implement his initiatives.
According to him, after Mohammed Amin Adam gets parliamentary approval on certain policies he would have to go to the executive for final approval and the President will subsequently run the policies through Mr Ofori-Atta.
Speaking on JoyFM’s Top Story on February 26, he explained that this might subsequently render the office of the Finance Minister useless, as it will have no influence on the country’s economy or expenditure.
“I have reason to say that what the President has done is technically to give Mohammed Amin one job with the left and take it back with the right. The appointment of Ken Ofori-Atta is akin to having a senior Finance Minister supervising the Finance Minister.
“If you know the way government works, the Finance Minister has to implement major policies through cabinet and through executive approval of the President, and when he is going to Cabinet or he is going to seek approval from the President, the President will consult his Advisor and his Advisor is Ken Ofori-Atta.
“So if Ken does not agree with the policy orientation of the Finance Minister, it is as good as not even starting it because it won’t get cabinet or executive approval,”he said.
He stressed that the Finance Minister’s position might only be ceremonial, and he would have to follow the choices of Mr Ofori-Atta.
“So, how can we have a Finance Minister who cannot do things differently from the way they were being done before,”he asked.
Mr Adongo stressed that this might make it difficult for Mr Adam to implement new policies especially if his superior disagrees. Therefore, there might be no improvement in the economy.
“How can we not have a Finance Minister who can be independent in thoughts, who cannot come to the job with his own thinking of how things should be done; but then he must stay with the status quo.
“Unfortunately, if you even look at his envoy role, basically what they are trying to do is to let him be in charge of debt negotiation and our debt restructuring and all of that,” he added.
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