A policy analyst with the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), Dr Steve Manteaw, has backed the Minority’s call for a Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) investigation into processes that led to the issuance of the $2.25billion domestic bond by government.
This follows a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance that sought to clarify issues surrounding the deal, but former Deputy Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson has maintained that the explanation failed to answer the fundamental questions.
Mr Forson had indicated that the $2.25billion domestic bond was issued in “secrecy”, without parliamentary approval, and “cooked” to favour US-based investor Franklin Templeton, all of which the Finance Ministry has dismissed.
The Minority has urged CHRAJ and parliament to look into the issue but speaking to Class News, Dr Manteaw suggested a CHRAJ inquest would be better than a parliamentary probe.
“The way…parliament is polarised, I’m not too sure if we were to set up parliamentary enquiry we would get anywhere, given that the ruling government has overwhelming majority and it is likely to whitewash this whole deal using its majority numbers in parliament,” he stated.
“Perhaps because we are talking about conflict of interest, I guess that we’ll require an independent body like CHRAJ to investigate this matter. CHRAJ itself a decade ago had actually developed some guidelines on conflict of interest, so it will be for CHRAJ to determine if its rules, in terms of conflict of interest, have been violated or breached in this transaction.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
