The finance minister-designate Dr. Ato Forson has told Dr. Gideon Boako, a former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia spokesperson, that there is no basis for him to apologize to Dr. Bawumia.
According to Ato Forson, Gideon Boako has got it very wrong because he stated the facts.
Gideon Boako noted that Ato Forson, in 2019 put out figures after Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia delivered a lecture that was utterly untrue, backing his statement with evidence from the budget statements of 2017, 2018, and 2019.
He further asked Ato Forson to consider apologizing to the former Vice President Dr. Bawumia.
Gideon Boako stated, “In your presentation, you put out some data, among which I found highly misleading information that you presented. And to quote you verbatim, you said, ‘Mr Chairman, the official data from the Ministry of Finance indicates clearly that the overall deficit by the end of 2016 was 7.8% of GDP 6.1% of new rebased GDP.’ But the figure you quoted, Honourable Nominee, was utterly untrue”
“Where did you get that figure you quoted from? Would you consider apologizing to the former Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia?” he asked.
The minister-designate in responding to Gideon Boako stated, “The Honorable Gideon Boako has got it very wrong; he is not previewed to the IMF data I want to refer him to the IMF staff report for 2018 and 2019, he is wrong in fact, the very 7.8 fiscal deficit for 2016 was reported by the IMF”.
“The IMF has subsequently revised the fiscal deficit for 2016 down to 6.3%, Mr. Chairman you know me in this house I just don’t speak, I speak with data, I research before I speak, I use data from independent sources” he stated.
Ato Forson further revealed, “Ghana was in an IMF program at the time, 2017 the ministry of finance presented a budget they quoted the number he is making reference to I challenged the numbers, in fact, my former boss also challenged the numbers because I was a deputy minister at the time”.
“In 2018 they repeated the same inaccurate numbers, and it had become the order of the day. I have a responsibility to defend our legacy and in defending our legacy I actually decided to use data from independent sources the International Monetary Fund (IMF) he added.
Ato Forson further detailed there is no basis for him to apologize to Dr. Bawumia.
“Ministry of Finance own data, I did not compute it according to the Ministry of Finance the fiscal deficit was 6.3% of GDP, so the 7.8% I was extremely charitable, so there is no basis for me to apologize I stated the fact”, he added.
Watch the video below:
Gideon Boako went to parliament to do Bawumia’s bidding but Dr Ato Forson exposed and disgraced him and his boss. You don’t joke around with Ato Forson pic.twitter.com/hBOE9oXv66
— KOJO DYNAMIC 𓃵 (@AnnanPerry) January 13, 2025
