Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s fate will be discussed in a meeting of the majority caucus, Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has announced.
This comes after the majority caucus called for the finance minister’s removal, claiming he had badly managed the country’s economy.
According to some members of the caucus, there was an understanding between the president and party officials after their meeting that the president would honor their demands after the IMF deal was finalised.
However the finance minister has remained in office despite the signing of the agreement last month and the subsequent depositing of the first $600 million into the country’s account.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu seems to be aversed to the dismissal of Ken Ofori-Atta as he has argued that since the government has not completed negotiations with the IMF yet, it will be counterproductive for Ofori-Atta to be ousted.
“Technically, we’re not out of the woods yet because, as I told you that the World Bank is here now, and I think the IMF will be coming two weeks or three weeks from now to also look at a few things, and then we come for a review, I think in August or so, so technically, the negotiations have not finalized. We would expect them to be coming around, which means that there are outstanding issues that you have to be relating to,” he said.
He continued by saying that if it were up to him, he’d let sleeping dogs lie, but since this is a caucus decision, he has to face the music and let the caucus decide the minister’s fate before relaying the decision to the president.
“But as I stated last week, sometimes when issues emerge and a lot of water passes under the bridge, perhaps it may be good to allow sleeping dogs to lie. But it’s not a decision that I can make on my own, maybe we’ll have to have a meeting.
“Because, as you said, even though this whole thing emanated from a group within the majority, the entire caucus subsequently aligned, and so it became the position of the majority caucus. We have to have a meeting naturally with the caucus to explain things to them. Maybe we may even have to involve the finance minister himself, and then we take it from there,” he added.
