I’m No Bully: Says Minister

PRESIDENT JOHN Dramani Mahama’s nominee for Minister of Finance Seth Terkper has denied claims by some unidentified staff of the ministry that he is a snob and a bully, when he faced a one-sided Appointments Committee of Parliament yesterday.

A member of the Appointments Committee and MP for Akwatia, Baba Jamal, while asking a question, indicated that he had been told by a worker at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning that notwithstanding that Mr. Terkper was “quite a competent gentleman”, he was “bullish and snobbish”.

Even though the Chairman of the Committee and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ebo Barton-Odro, overruled the question, the Minister of Finance-designate, who is also a former Deputy Minister at the same ministry, nonetheless debunked the allegation, insisting that such bad descriptions were not his attributes.

“I have a cordial relationship with the staff, but I also insist on the right thing being done,” Mr. Terkper told the Appointments Committee during his vetting for appointment as the Minister of Finance, indicating his firmness and demand for the needed work ethics was probably being misconstrued to be arrogance.

“Cordiality is important but I also believe discipline is very important. My only appeal is that we must be disciplined in carrying out our duties because as a ministry we are custodians of the national purse and it requires a certain level of firmness and discipline to control and effectively manage the resources on behalf of the people,” he pointed out.

He promised to have a continued good working relationship with the staff at the ministry, and also served notice that proper discipline would be required of workers to ensure the mandate of his outfit was effectively delivered.

Members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) yesterday carried out their threat and declined participation in the vetting of President Mahama’s ministerial nominees because the party is challenging the legitimacy of the President at the Supreme Court.

Accordingly, only members of the NDC on the Appointments Committee subjected the Finance Minister-designate, Seth Terkper, to two hours of grilling on the management of the country’s finances.

He expressed disappointment about reports of possible duplication of payment of some judgment debts in recent years.

Solicitor-General Ama Gaisie during last Wednesday’s sitting of the Judgment Debt Commission hinted that some beneficiaries of judgment debts were overpaid with others receiving double the amounts due them.

The worrying phenomenon, according to her, had arisen as a result of a lack of coordination between the Attorney General’s Department, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning which released the funds, and other stakeholders.

Consequently, Mr. Terkper indicated that some processes had been initiated to synchronize the payment module of the ministry across other ministries to deal with such challenges.

“One of the things that, as a ministry, we will do is to work with the Attorney General’s Department and strengthen the legal department of the Ministry of Finance as well as the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to ensure that contracts that underlie these works protect the state.

“We shall also conduct the necessary audits to ensure that judgment debt does not bother the Ghanaian population as it is now,” he asserted.

The Finance Minister designate stressed that the tax payers’ money must be protected by the ministry, announcing that a new mechanism known as the Budget and Accounting System had been put in place to ensure that all government transactions were put into one simple system to cut out the duplication of payments.

He said his tenure as a Minister would ensure that the “process of tendering contract formulation will be strengthened to blot out the loopholes in the award of contracts”.

The second ministerial nominee who appeared before the Appointments Committee was Hannah Serwaah Tetteh for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.

She told the Committee she would work to ensure Ghana benefits from economic diplomacy by attracting the needed investment, should Parliament approve her nomination.

Answering questions on a wide range of issues including delay in payment of bursaries to Ghanaian students on scholarship abroad, difficulty in acquisition of visas, Ghana’s relationship with Cote d’Ivoire and the current volatile situation in Mali, Ms. Tetteh said she would collaborate with all stakeholders to ensure the country promotes good neighbourliness and attract investment into the country.