Chiana-Paga MP lambasts government over latest borrowing to clear NIA GH¢100m debt

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Chiana-Paga, Thomas Adda Dalu, has rubbished the government’s latest borrowing of GH¢100 million to clear a debt owed a private company by the National Identification Authority (NIA).

More than three million blank duplicates of the Ghana Card are said to have been locked up in bonded warehouses by NIA’s technical partners for nonpayment of the debt.

Finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, told Parliament on Tuesday that the government had reached an agreement with Cal Merchant Bank to provide a GH¢100 million facility to clear the debt so that the cards could be printed and distributed.

“Mr Speaker, we have agreed to a GH¢100 million facility to ensure that the 3.2 million blank cards are released,” the Finance Minister said, adding that GH¢80 million had been deposited and that the remaining GH¢20 million would be paid by close of Tuesday, February 28, 2023.

But speaking to journalists in Parliament on Wednesday, the Chiana-Paga lawmaker hit out at the government, describing the borrowing as “a misplaced priority”.

“I’m worried about this because of where we are economically to the extent that you (government) have to ask bondholders to forgo their interests for a certain period of time and ask pensioners to also be part of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme. This means that we are really in a very critical position, if not you won’t go there. So, if we are in this critical situation, as a Member of Parliament, I believe we should set our priorities right. Ghana Card is important. If we are not able to get the Ghana Card for people now at this very critical moment that we don’t have money, why should we be worried that we must get Ghana Card for people?

“And like I said, in many of the districts, including my own district and constituency for that matter, there are a lot abandoned projects which are very important to the lives of the people. Currently, there are some bridges which are broken in my constituency. The last season, people lost their lives while they were trying to cross around those bridges. Those bridges need to be replaced to save lives. You can get the Ghana Card later but you cannot save a life later. The Ghana Card is important but I don’t know why we should go and take a big amount of money to pay to release those cards. Why should that be a priority at this point?” Dalu stated.

The MP said there was no cause for the government to rush in making the Ghana Card the sole identity document for voter registration purposes now and opined that such should be a priority only when the Ghana Card was generally accessible.

“We should wait till systematically everybody would get it and at a point that we can say fine, everybody has got the Ghana Card and we now want to say that is the only card that you can use to register and, if possible, to go and vote. But not now. I don’t understand. You are telling people that they should forgo their investment interests.

“People don’t come and do investments for investment’s sake. They do investments to keep their lives going. And, so, to tell them they won’t take their interests for a particular time, you are killing them. And you the same government would then turn round to spend on things you think are priorities when the people don’t believe they are priorities. It’s not the best. It’s not the best,” he emphasised.