1D1F: Trade Ministry denies Minority’s claim of 'GH¢269 million unaccounted cash'

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has denied a claim by Ranking Member of the Select Committee on Trade and Industry and Tourism of Parliament, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah that an amount of GH¢269million cannot be accounted for.

The ministry said in a statement signed by its Chief Director, Patrick Yaw Nimo said the claim is untrue and misleading.

In a press conference in Accra, the opposition MP alleged that about GH¢207 million cannot be accounted for in the final accounts provided by the Ministry.

“So we are asking the Ministry that we will need the names of the banks and the names of each of the companies as well as the amount each and every company has taken. Initially, the Ministry said it will take some time for them to get these documents. They dragged it and finally, they brought us the list of the banks with the names of the companies and the amounts. We insisted that without that we will not approve their budget,” he explained.

He continued that “We finally got that report this morning. Unfortunately, the Ministry was unable to account for the GH¢269 million loans given to the banks. The Ministry was only able to account for GH¢62,281,484.29 million what it means is that a total amount of GH¢207,407, 899 have not been accounted for. In other words that amount as far as we are concerned is missing.”

“It is important that the press and the people of Ghana take interest in this matter, and the Minister in the helm of affairs the Alan Kyerematen must come clean to the people of Ghana to explain where the amount of GH¢207,407,899 to basically de-risk these loans to one district one factory is.”

But the trade ministry said “Our attention has been drawn to a statement by Ranking Member on the Select Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism of Parliament, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah (MP) on Friday 17th December 2021 that the Ministry of Trade and Industry could not account for the total of GH269million allocated for interest subsidy payment for loan facilitation under the One District One Factory initiative".

“The ministry wishes to state categorically that, the said statement attributed to the Ranking Member is not only misleading but totally inaccurate.”