The Bank of Ghana (BOG) is disputing claims by the Finance Minister, Seth Tekper that an amount of $100 million dollars was transferred into the sinking fund to help the nation repay its debt and they swept the account clean in March 2015.
Government announced in the 2015 budget the creation of the Sinking Fund Account to enable it defray accumulated debts.
[contextly_sidebar id=”vHKfzQkVnsCDufWNZlSo1XsHA3CpRlXm”]The Finance Minister while presenting the mid-year budget review reiterated that Government created the sinking fund account “to help manage the orderly redemption of our maturing Eurobond and other bonds.”
“In march 2015, Bank of Ghana swept all positive balances on government accounts, starts reducing unfortunately the balance on the sinking fund to zero.”
He said the sinking fund is “part of measures to streamline account balances in a rather conventional manner for the IMF programme.”
But Director of the Petroleum secretariat at the Bank of Ghana, Nana Aba insisted that no amount of money was transferred into the account as captured in paragraph 111 of the minister’s speech.
Speaking at a forum in Accra on accountability in the oil and Gas sector, the Bank of Ghana official, stated that there are no funds in the account because there was no excess amount from the cap on the Ghana Stabilization Fund, which the source of funds for the Sinking Fund account.
“The sinking fund was established under the 2015 budget and it is to be funded from the excess over the cap established under the stabilization fund. The cap level has not been achieved yet so the bank really has not received any allocation because under the 2015 budget it is to be funded from the stabilization fund,” added Nana Aba.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana