Bawumia's $250 allegation does not make sense – Ametor

Consultant to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Eric Ametor Quarmyne has discounted claims by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia that the Government of Ghana diverted US $250 million of the US $1 billion Eurobond issued to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) to a private account.

The Running Mate of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Bawumia, last week accused the current administration of diverting the amount into a private account in a private bank to bolster election campaigns ahead of the November 7 polls.

He further disclosed that the government has "in a shocking move turned around to borrow back that amount through treasury bills, thus, paying interests again on the same money to the private bank".

He made this revelation during a lecture at the Accra Polytechnic on Thursday.

“I want to provide one example of the recklessness and incompetence I am talking about. Ghana borrowed US$1 billion through a Eurobond issue in 2015. Government allocated US$250 million of this borrowed funds to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF). This Fund is not yet operational. These Funds were initially deposited at Bank of Ghana where they should be. Notwithstanding the fact that the GIIF is not operational and there are no projects for the GIIF to implement now, the Government unbelievably transferred the $250 million from the Bank of Ghana to GIIF’s account at a private Bank. With no project to execute, These Funds have now been lent to government through the purchase of Treasury bills! This is unbelievable", he stated.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, the NHIA Consultant rubbished Dr Bawumia's claims.

Without mincing words, Ametor Quarmyne stated emphatically that “what Bawumia is saying doesn’t make sense. What he is saying is not true.”

To him, there is nothing wrong with government transferring the money to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) so long as there is a board in place.

He further called Dr. Bawumia's claim that the GIIF is not operational a palpable falsehood, stressing that "the government has set up Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund with a full Board and Acting Chief Executive and a Board Chairman, and the rest of the staff are being recruited. So, the fund is fully operational now…There is nothing absolutely nothing wrong about this case. There’s no diversion in this case because it is stated clearly right from the beginning, all through Parliament, that this $250 million will be given to Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund to use as seed capital to start their operations.”

Touching on the claim that government has gone back to borrow part of the US $250m through treasury bills, the NHIA Consultant pointed out government has shares in the Agricultural Development Bank and the National Investment Bank and so "why is Dr. Bawumia not complaining? At the time when he was the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, were these banks not buying treasury bills? No, were they not buying treasury bills? Is it not Ghana government’s money?

The government has not gone to UBA to buy treasury bills…There is no proof. If he has any certificate from UBA, if Dr. Bawumia has any certificate from UBA which says that the 250 million dollars that the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund has in their account and asked us to invest; we’ve used it to buy treasure bills, he can bring it!”

Describing the former Deputy Governor of the BoG as a man without credibility, Ametor Quarmyne catalogued a litany of statements made by Dr. Bawumia, which he (Ametor) claims turned out to be "lies" when subjected to strict proof.

"In 2015, at a lecture at the Central University College, On 25th March 2015 he lied that the African Development Bank (AfDB) had suspended Ghana the previous month and we were still on suspension as of the time he was delivering the lecture. AfDB denied this claim...then on 18th August 2015, he claimed at a press conference that he had evidence of 760,000 foreigners from Togo, Cote D’Ivoire and Burkina Faso on the Ghanaian voters’ register. He claimed to have presented only 10% of the evidence and that the NPP will make the remaining 90% available in due course. Several months after this claim, he has failed to produce the remaining 90% after it turned out that even the so-called 10% he presented was fabricated," he stated.