Govt must come clean on EU blacklisting Ghana - Ato Forson

Former Deputy Finance Minister, Cassiel Ato Forson has accused the government of hiding the truth behind the European Union (EU) blacklisting Ghana over money laundering issues.

This comes after Ghana’s Embassy in Belgium was ordered by its banker to withdraw all of its money to enable the bank close the embassy’s accounts.

The ING Bank premised its action on Article 59 of the bank’s General Regulations and that the decision is irreversible.

Speaking to Joy News, Mr. Forson said the government has shown little effort in addressing the EU blacklist situation.

He added that government posture towards the matter is indicative that they are keeping something from the people of Ghana.

“If you access the countries that are on the list carefully, you will notice that countries that have been blacklisted are countries that are safe havens or countries that may be at war or some form of terrorism. That should tell you that something fundamentally is missing and there is something the government is hiding from us.

“Why is it that the government is not telling us the main reasons we are on the list in the first place? Sadly, the government is telling us very little,” he said.

The former deputy finance minister expressed worry about the slow pace that the government is handling the issue.

He believes things could get out of hands if immediate action is not taken to rectify any anomalies.

“This is only going to get worse, in the sense that, when you [a country] are blacklisted, EU has its Head Office in Brussels which is in Belgium so institutions in Belgium will be the first to receive it before it extends to other countries.”

However, Kwaku Kwarteng, the Deputy Finance Minister, has stressed that the government has implemented policies to get Ghana off the list by the end of 2020.