It was a near chaotic situation in Parliament last 5 October, this year, between the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Nyiaeso constituency in the Ashanti region and the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) John Abdulai Jinapor, the MP for Yapei Kusawgu Constituency in the Savanna Region.
Insiders say the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had met the Parliament Finance Committee of which both MPs were members representing the majority and the minority respectively.
The rules of engagement for the meeting was for IMF to have an input from the finance committee regarding the ongoing three (3) billion load talks between the Government and the Fund.
It was during this engagement that a heated argument ensued between John Jinapor.
John Jinapor, who reportedly challenged the stated debt portfolio of the country, which excluded the SinoHydro agreement and admonished the IMF to manage its communication well.
Dr. Stephen Amoah, the paper gathered however called out John Jinapor to stay within the focal points of reference and added that, Jinapor’s point would not help in the recovery process when he veered into another areas.
Chairman of the 25 Member committee Hon. Kwaku Agyeman Kwarteng, who had set the point of reference clearly when he realized people were going wayward, sensing the rising tension, reiterated the rules of engagement at the meeting to calm tempers.
Calm prevailed and the meeting continued with both sides and the IMF team having very fruitful meeting.
However, issues such as timeline for the IMF program to commence with the DSA were raised and a firm suggestion was also made that the IMF should place the Ghana situation which is an outlier one driven by the global economic crisis on the priority radar.
IMF emphasize, the paper gathered, noted that it could not put timelines as the programme had just started and their concentration was more on policies to help the country recover from its current economic situation.
During the meeting, the IMF also made the following points clearly: that Ghana is going through economic challenges and needed stakeholders’ cooperation and help with the recovery agenda.
The Fund also revealed that the austerity measures that would be introduced after the talks with government would be initiated and implemented by Government and not the Fund, but that IMF just started its engagement with government so it was early days yet for them to draw conclusions on the country’s debt.
Meanwhile, all attempt to reach both MPs to comment on the near altercation proved futile as calls to their mobile numbers were not answered.
