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Member of Parliament for Buem constituency in the Oti region, Kofi Adams, has accused the Bank of Ghana of inflating Ghana’s debt through reckless spending and unauthorised payments.

Kofi Adams who serves on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Ghana’s parliament, has raised dire concerns about a staggering increase in Ghana’s liabilities, ballooning from GHC459 billion in 2021 to GHC810 billion in 2022. He attributed this surge to the Bank’s mismanagement.

During a PAC engagement with the Bank of Ghana, Kofi Adams revealed questionable transactions. He cited a $12 million payment to MS Power China International Group Limited for the Pwalugu Irrigation Project, despite no progress on the ground.

Furthermore, the lawmaker flagged a $2.5 million payment to Morta Engils for the Accra-Tema Motorway project, allegedly awarded without a proper contract. The PAC has demanded documentation from the Bank of Ghana to investigate these transactions further.

Adams also criticized the ongoing gold-for-oil barter system, arguing it fails to deliver on its promise of cheaper oil prices. He proposed scrapping the system due to its perceived lack of benefit to Ghana.

“According to the government’s accountant, our liabilities as of 2022 December are over 810 billion and the interesting thing is the levels of the jump from 2021 to 2022. In 2021 it was reported that our total liabilities were 459 billion and by 2022 it had jumped 810 billion just in one year.

“What did we do in just that short period that accounted for this huge jump of our liabilities from 459 billion to 810 billion nothing to show but we found some of the answers to this jump when we had an encounter with the Bank of Ghana in relation to their foreign exchange receipts and payment that government of Ghana have designed and paying companies for no work done.”

“We observed in the progress report of payments by the Bank of Ghana using our foreign exchange that they paid some companies like MS Power China International Group Limited that are supposed to construct the Pwalugu irrigation project almost 12 million dollars when the work has been done.”

“You go to the site now there’s absolutely nothing it’s just a bush with about 25 pieces of blocks on the site but they have been dashed $12 million by this government. Again, another company, MS Motor Angels, was paid almost $3 million, that’s about $2,577,269 for the Tema Motorway extension project. This company had no contract to execute that project and did not do anything on the Tema -Motorway that required payment of, what, $2,577 million to them.”