Gov’t introducing no new loans – Amoatey

The outgoing government of John Dramani Mahama has not laid before parliament any new loan agreements for its approval, Magnus Amoatey, Member of Parliament for Yilo Krobo, has said.

According to him, what is before the legislature at the moment is performance agreement on loans that have already been approved.

His comments follow a notice served by the Minority in Parliament, led by Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, that it will no longer take part in the approval of new loans and contracts being brought to the House by the outgoing government.

Addressing a news conference in Accra Thursday, Mr Mensah Bonsu said: “We in the NPP minority caucus would want to register our deepest disgust at unilateral decisions being taken on how parliament approves of loans, suppliers’ credit agreements and project implementation agreements, the latter of which process is unknown to the rules or procedure of parliament in this period of transition.”

He added: “We regret to state that we cannot be part of processes and decisions which in our considered opinion are illegitimate. It is also instructive to note that recruitments are being made into the public service. We are aware of the agreement between the government and the IMF in respect of the net freeze in employment until 2017, except in the health and education sectors.”

But reacting to these comments in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM on Friday, December 23, Mr Amoatey said: “I did not see any new loan agreements in parliament yesterday (Thursday). What I saw were waivers for agreements that had already been signed. You have gone for loan and parliament says: ‘bring performance agreement’ and when you bring that performance agreement, it doesn’t mean you are introducing a new loan agreement.

“It is nothing new, this is a performance agreement that is based on loans already contracted and approved by parliament.”