IMF compliance mechanism has exposed BoG's reporting shortfalls – Adongo

Deputy ranking member of the finance committee of parliament, Mr Isaac Adongo has said the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) compliance mechanism has exposed the Bank of Ghana’s reporting shortfalls and vindicates former President John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Mr Adongo in a statement recalled that since 2018, former President Mahama and the NDC Minority in Parliament have raised issues about the consistent “clever accounting” reporting of national accounts by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government and shockingly aided by the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison.

The Bank of Ghana led by Dr Addison and his team, Mr Adongo alleges, has since 2017 inflated Ghana’s gross international reserves by adding the encumbered funds, which is contrary to the standard methodology and also different from the IMF balance of Payment Manual Five (BPM 5) computation.

This assertion by the NDC, he stated was confirmed by the then IMF Country Representative to Ghana, Dr Albert Touna Mama.

He added that afterwards, the government communicators chastised the IMF Representative, and it was not surprising that he was replaced months later.

Mr Adongo said the IMF presence has, however, forced out the truth about Bank of Ghana’s machinations.

“But just like their other lies and machinations, it was just a matter of time before the truth comes panting. So after several years of hiding our true reserves, the IMF has now forced the Bank of Ghana to report Ghana’s gross international reserves accurately to conform with the balance of payments manual,” he stated.

Mr Adongo indicated that “the Bank of Ghana in its July 2023 Summary of Economic and Financial Data included a new row for the first time, called Gross International Reserves (GIR), excluding Encumbered Assets & Petroleum Funds. Shockingly, the data has exposed the fact that the Bank of Ghana has since 2017 inflated Ghana’s reserves by over 100%. For instance, the bank reported GIR for December 2022 at US$6.2 billion, but their July 2023 report showed the actual position was US$1.4 billion.”

Asking where the sudden depletion came from, Mr Adongo noted that “this revelation, which rather confirms the position we in the NDC have held all this while strengthens our believe that the current management at the Bank of Ghana, headed by Dr Addison has been cooking figures to support the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government to deceive Ghanaians and investors, resulting in grave damage to the public's trust in governance and losses to investors and businesses.”

The lawmaker stressed that this amounts to a trampling on established accounting and fiscal standards on reporting national data and called on Ghanaians to take interest in this matter.

He also urged Ghana's vibrant media and the civil society to take keen interest in this ethical and disdainful spitting on established standards to achieve political objectives by an institution as sensitive as the central bank.