Member of Parliament for Bolga Central, Hon. Isaac Adongo, has revealed that Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta tried to ambush and coach him to say sugar-coated lies about Ghana’s economy to investors in the US.
In an interview with Bolga-based Dreamz Fm, Hon. Adongo who is also Deputy Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament recounts how Ofori-Atta invited him and other people to an unplanned meeting at the Renaissance hotel in Washington just when he and the group he had travelled with, were preparing to meet some powerful agencies.
He says he refused to attend.
“When we went to Washington he (Ken Ofori Atta) invited us to a meeting at Renaissance Hotel in Washington, I refused to attend the meeting. You work with me in Ghana, you have never invited us as a team to a meeting, you never discussed your problems with managing this economy with us and sought our solutions,” Adongo fired.
“Somebody pays for me to attend a meeting in Washington and because am about to engage Agencies that you fear if I speak what I speak you may not be comfortable, you want to manage my thought process?” He questioned.
Ofori-Atta had used the same ambush tactics on former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, who had issued a report in 2020 indicting Ofori-Atta of corruption in the dubious Agyapa Royalties deal.
According to Amidu, Ofori-Atta suddenly came to hang out at his house, trying to use his personal friendship with Amidu to influence his work.
Amidu said he refused the advances and went on to do an independent investigation which revealed Agyapa was souped in corruption, including the fact that Ofori-Atta’s private company, Databank was a direct beneficiary of the Agyapa deal in a conflict of interest arrangement.
Hon. Adongo points out that Ofori-Atta’s sudden interest in meeting him, even though in Ghana, the man has snubbed calls for him to meet the Finance Committee on several occasions was a tell-tale sign that he was up to something fishy.
“If you really think that I am a player and an important key stakeholder in the governance of your finances that is not where to do it. It just didn’t make sense to me and in any case, it was not he the finance minister who brought me to Washington. You cannot come and meet your deputy ranking on finance in Washington when you have never met him in Ghana” he said.