US$2.25 billion bond probe waste of time; NDC will be embarrassed – Baako

Veteran Journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has said the NDC Minority in Parliament will be hugely embarrassed following their petitioning of the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate US$2.25 billion bond issuance by the Akufo Addo government in which Franklin Templeton, a US registered company purchased 95% of 15-year and 7-year bonds.

According to him, the Minority by this move “are seeking to internationalize their incompetence, ineptitude and embarrassment” as they have embarked on an exercise in futlity.

The NDC Minority last week petitioned the SEC of the United States of America claiming the bond, participated by only two investors, was “shrouded in secrecy to the extent that Ghanaian investors were denied the opportunity to participate in the deal.”

The MPs said one of the investors who patronised the bond, Franklyn Templeton, has a link to Enterprise Group Limited of which Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is a co-founder.

They said one Trevor G. Trefgarne, who is the Board Chairman of Enterprise insurance Limited and also on the Franklyn Templeton Investment Company as a Director, might have influenced the manner in which the bond was issued.

However commenting on the matter on Joy FM’s News File show Saturday, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako who’s the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper stated the Minority’s move is just a waste of everybody’s precious time.

“As to what the outcome of this probe will be, I know in my mind’s eye that this is going nowhere. They have embarked on a fishing expedition but they’ll make no catch, they’ll go to see and come empty handed..the net will be empty. They are asking the US to look into conflict of interest and insider trading, there’ll be nothing there for them and they will be embarrassed.”

He said there was absolutely nothing illegal, unconstitutional or improper over the transaction, adding that there’s enough evidence that what happened in the case of the issuance of the US$2.25 billion bond is same as has happened since 2015.

“The 2017 budget, if you go to paragraph 851…the liability managment thing, it captures the appropriate legal regime for this, same way with Appropriations Act 2017. It appropriated the domestic financing of the 12 billion, so there’s proper legal basis in terms of transparency. When Parliament adopted that format about issuance calenders it was meant for transparency,” Baako noted.