Appointments Commitee set to approve Ofori-Atta

Minister-designate for Finance Ken Ofori-Atta has been unanimously passed by the Appointments Committee of Parliament to serve in the capacity for which he was nominated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 3news.com can confirm.

Mr Ofori-Atta endured two days of vetting, answering questions ranging from the state of the country’s economy to the controversial minerals royalties deal, the Agyapa Transaction.

His vetting had to be rescheduled from Tuesday, February 16 after he was flown to the United States of America (USA) for treatment for post-Covid complications.

On Thursday, March 25, when he faced the Appointments Committee for the first time, he was made to give responses on some of the issues that were raised in the corruption-risk assessment report produced by the Special Prosecutor Martin Alamisi Amidu, who resigned weeks later over that report.

“We broke no rule and I think the Attorney General should be able to give an assessment on that,” Mr Ofori-Atta said. “I do not believe that we broke any rule by the way which the procurement was done. We should be having a truly and broader discussion about Ghanaian enterprise and therefore how experienced entrepreneurs can join government at any point in time. There was no conflict of interest.”

He accused Mr Amidu of giving him no right to reply before going public with his report.

The issues took centre stage again on Friday, March 26 when the vetting continued.

He is expected to be approved by plenary on Monday, March 29 when the report of the Committee is laid before the House.