John Peter Amewu, Minister of Railway Development, has mounted a defense for embattled cabinet colleague, Ken Ofori-Atta, stating that the Finance Minister is one of the best brains in the country.
Amewu, who is also Member of Parliament for Hohoe Constituency, added that by his achievements since he took office, Ofori-Atta has proven himself to be one of the best Finance Ministers under the Fourth Republic.
“The Finance Minister has done extremely well and I think that so far he has been one of the best Finance Ministers we have seen in the Fourth Republic.”
President Akufo-Addo on July 1 ordered Ofori-Atta to commence formal engagements with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, which move the Minister had repeatedly said was not going to happen.
Opposition voices have since mounted campaigns calling for Ofori-Atta to be sacked citing the fact that he has mismanaged the economy putting in a position where it required help from the global lender.
“This Finance Minister has been one of the best brains so far, everybody can attest to the fact,” Amewu said in an interview on Accra-based TV3’s on Tuesday July 5.
On the issue of the Minister’s borrowing spree, Amewu said: “What is wrong with borrowing? If you borrow for a good reason there is nothing wrong, when you borrow for consumption, that is when you have a problem.
“The infrastructural development that we are seeing today, it is part of the borrowing and we are borrowing for good reason. These projects as have clearly demonstrated, are bankable projects, so if you borrow to finance a bankable project that has shown all elements of bankability, I don’t think there is anything wrong about it.”
Ofori-Atta is part of a government taskforce headed by the President relative to engagements with the IMF. The Fund’s team arrived in Accra on July 5 and are expected to start their meetings today.
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