The former Minister of State at the Finance and Economic Planning Ministry, Dr. Anthony Akoto-Osei is calling for the immediate resignation of the World Bank’s Country Director Mr. Ishak Diwan.
Akoto Osei who is also the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, says Mr. Diwan has grossly misrepresented Ghana’s financial standing by the end of 2008.
Mr. Diwan had alleged that the NPP had left a deficit of 20 percent of GDP as a result of reckless spending.
“The spending was very large. I mean look at Greece these days. Everybody talks about Greece having huge deficits, it’s undermining the whole EU and they have deficit of 9 to 10% of GDP. Ghana had a deficit of 20% of GDP, this is a world record, it is reckless.”
Responding to an interview that Mr. Diwan granted to an Accra based radio station Citi FM on Ghana’s fiscal standing and spending regime in the last year of the NPP administration that it was frivolous and not thoughtful to Asempa News, Dr. Anthony Akoto-Osei said it was the same World Bank officer who prior to the coming into office of the National Democratic Congress wrote a letter describing the health of the economy to the then President-elect Atta Mills, an attitude he (Dr. Akoto-Osei) describes as, not only unethical and uncalled for but, unprofessional.
He says in an earlier letter written to the board of the World Bank, Mr. Diwan had reported Ghana’s deficit to be 14.5 percent and wondered how the World Bank Country Director could come up with a new figure of 20 percent deficit of GDP.
Dr. Akoto Osei told Asempa News, the then NPP government had had to contend with a global economic crisis which was having a telling effect on the nation’s economy.
He said the government even at a point had to spend about 500 million dollars for the purchase of crude oil for the Volta River Authority, coupled with other huge investments in the energy sector were expenditures the nation could not do without.
Dr. Akoto-Osei said Mr. Ishak Dwian is only being mischievous by shifting the goal post to suit an agenda.
