Failure Ken Ofori-Atta has been cooking figures to fool us – Mahama

Former President John Mahama has criticized the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, saying, he has failed the nation by just cooking figures to satisfy international financial institutions and rating agencies to make the economy look good.

He argues that some of the nation’s economic pointers look worrying, particularly the fiscal situation where the budget deficit and debts have ballooned at an alarming rate

Mr Mahama said, “It’s not today that we raised the issue of the Finance Minister [Ken Ofori-Atta] cooking the books, he’s been cooking the books over the last four years. What he does is he leaves out some big-ticket budget items and pushes them as ‘footnotes’ so that he can get a better fiscal report to give to the international community.”

“He has used it to fool the IMF [International Monetary Fund], he has used it to fool Moody’s, Fitch and all the rating agencies. He’s used it to fool the Economist Intelligence Unit, all of them by giving a rosy picture that they are better economic management,” Mr Mahama emphasized in an interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com.

He expressed surprise that with the availability of abundant resources, the NPP government will continue on the borrowing spree, stressing, “but with the kind of resources we left him, I’m surprised and shocked by his abysmal performance.”

The NDC has intensified its campaign on the economy, using the large debt and fiscal deficit as its primary campaign message.