We won't need IMF if A-G surcharges persons implicated in annual report – Group

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have entreated the Auditor-General to surcharge persons implicated in the 2019 and 2020 Auditor-General’s reports.

The Coalition for Democratic Accountability and Inclusive Governance (Citizens’ Coalition) is of the firm belief that if the Auditor-General, Mr. Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu is able to recover such money lost through various financial infractions and irregularities at the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), the country may abandon its plans to seek an IMF bailout.

“If you add 2020 and 2019, you will get about GHc48 billion. The amount of money we’re going to the IMF for is how much? If you convert it, you’re talking about not less than one of these years.

"In other words, if he’d retrieved any of the amounts from 2019, 2020, or 2021, we would not need to go to the IMF. Does that make sense? The maths is simple, GHc 48bn irregularities – monies lost in three years, the amount you’re going for from the IMF is about a third. If the Auditor-General retrieves these monies, do we need to go to the IMF?

“If we are able to retrieve these sums of money, it makes our economy much more stable. If the Auditor-General performs, we’ll not have to run around looking for loans,” one of the conveners of the coalition told the media ahead of a protest in Accra.