Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)
Sebastian R. Freiku
17 June 2009
Kumasi — MR. KWAKU Kwarteng, a government spokesperson on Finance in the Kufuor administration has blamed the NDC government for the rising cost of food and basic items, which situation he attributed to the 37% rise in the price of fuel over the last six months.
A statement issued in Accra last friday and made available to The Chronicle via the electronic mail, raised concern over hikes in prices, against the fact that wages still remain the same. Mr. Kwarteng put the blame at the doorsteps of the NDC and pointed to inconsistencies in the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) debt.
He referred to a programme, Matters Arising, on TV Africa in January 2009, where Hon. Moses Asaga, then a member of the NDC Economic team, said that the TOR debt at the close of December 2008 was GH¢1 billion (or 10 trillion old cedis).
President Evans Atta-Mills, during his encounter with journalists at the Castle on April 14 2009, also quoted a different figure of GH¢1.14 billion (or 11.4 trillion old cedis)
Mr. Ametor Kwami, Features Editor of the Palaver is also said to have told listeners of Peace FM's Kokrookoo programme on June 9 2009, quoting from a letter he claimed was from TOR that the debt at the close 2008 was GH¢473 million (or 4.73 trillion old cedis).
The Vice President, John Dramani Mahama also reportedly stated on Metro TV's Good Evening Ghana, in an interview, that the TOR debt at the close of December 2008 was GH¢930 million (or 9.3 trillion old cedis).
In a comedy of errors, the Minister for Energy, Dr. Oteng Adjei also told parliament on June 12 2009 that the TOR debt at the close of December 2008 was GH¢106 million (or 1.06 trillion old cedis). According to the Energy Minister, the under-recoveries at TOR, VRA, Bulk Trading Company, BOST and others, all put together was GH¢347 million at the close of December 2008.
Mr. Kwarteng said he believes that the NDC might was lying about the TOR debt figure, with the varying claims by government officials, including the President, about the TOR debt that it inherited at the beginning of 2009, and the claim that the revenue from the TOR Debt recovery levy had not been used to service the TOR debt as completely false.
He said, the fact that officials of TOR have not been able to tell Ghanaians about the actual TOR debt as at the close of 2008, go to attest to the fact that government officials were just throwing about figures on the TOR debt.
The NPP Communications Director indicated that they have in their possession a letter signed by the Deputy MD of TOR, Dr. Ali Abugri, on September 24, 2008, with the title -"TOR DEBT EXPLAINED", referenced Treasury/JKA/eal/R316/2008, to the Ministry of Finance in which it was stated at paragraph 4 that the debt at TOR at the beginning of September 2008 stood at GH¢167.53 million.
Explaining further, Mr. Kwarteng recalled that from late July 2008, when world crude oil prices started falling sharply, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) did not reduce fuel prices, with the explanation that TOR incurred losses when crude oil price increased to $147 per barrel, so there was the need to defray those losses before reducing fuel prices.
According to the NPP spokesperson, the GH¢167.53 million in the TOR letter dated September 24, 2008, was the losses that the NPA referred to. Mr. Kwarteng said that by November 1 2008, those losses had indeed been cleared, so the NPA started reducing prices and questioned when the TOR debt reached GH¢1,140 million. "The answer is never! It is all false.
That is why officials of TOR are now unable to comment on the TOR debt. They are afraid of exposing the government, including the President", it was stated.
The NPP Spokesperson and Communications Director said the problem with this distasteful politicization of the TOR debt is that it makes the economy look bad in the eyes of the outside world. "It reduces confidence in our local currency and makes the cedi fall sharply, leading to sharp price increases on the market. In the end, it is the ordinary people in Ghana that suffer," Mr. Kwarteng stressed.
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