Be proactive with your projections – PAC tells BoG

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) missed all its projections for the first half of the year 2015, resulting in huge variances in the books of the central bank.

For instance, the BoG projected to realise US$50 million foreign exchange receipt from manganese but only realised US$9 million.

This, the PAC considers unavoidable and urged the central bank to be proactive with their projections.

This came to light when the PAC meet on Tuesday, April 25, 2017, to consider the Report of the Auditor-General on the Statement of Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payment of the Bank of Ghana for the Half year ended June 30, 2015.

But the BoG in an explanation said they do get in touch with the mining companies to collate their projections for the year, an exercise which also informs them to do same.

However, due to volatility in the market, their projects could be affected, resulting in the huge variances they are witnessing today.

For instances, the BoG said they could project to realise US$50 million from manganese but the moment the dollar appreciates against the Cedi, their projection could be affected.

In the same vain, when there is a drop in prices of the various commodities on the world market, it also have the tendency of affecting their projections.

Nevertheless, managers of the central bank said they have put measures in place to minimise the effect of the projections.

The Public Accounts Committee has began sittings to consider the audited reports of the government institutions submitted to Parliament for consideration by the Auditor-General.