Nkonkonsa Celebrity Gossip From Africa
Host of Metro TV’s “Good Evening Ghana”, Paul Adom-Otchere has hit back at ace broadcaster Kwesi Kyei Darkwa, popularly known as KKD over his recent comments on the Finance Minister.
He said the allegations by KKD that the Finance Minister’s former company makes money from all of government’s borrowing is not true.
In an editorial on his show, Mr. Adom-Otchere said the things KKD said can best be described pure and jealousy.
Paul Adom-Otchere argued that Ken Ofori-Atta’s former company, Databank has been involved as advisors for Ghana in the Eurobond market since 2014.
Therefore, it cannot be true that Databank only became involved when Mr. Ofori-Atta was appointed Minister of Finance by President Akufo-Addo in 2017.
“I agree with KKD, people can’t take up government contracts and set up a company, that I agree with. But the references he is making is to people whose companies have not been set up today, they have been doing that work already.”
“So I come to sit on TV and say David Awauh-Darko, I’m older than him, he is a small boy and he came from nowhere, now he is a Minister of Finance and IC Securities are doing government business; that’s not analysis, that’s envy”.
“That’s not analysis, that’s pure jealousy, envy and it is foolishness”, he added
He also cited the case of renowned investment banker Togbe Afede and his company, Strategic Africa Securities, SAS, in driving home the point that Ofori-Atta and Databank were involved in legitimate business for which the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Ghana had given them required legal clearance.
“If tomorrow, Togbe Afede becomes Minister of Finance, should we say, you have become Minister of Finance, therefore, SAS can no longer advice government on Eurobond borrowing and close down the company?
“But that is the reality that we take from the narrative of broadcast legend, Kwasi Kyei Darkwah,” Adom-Otchere noted.
KKD, earlier in the week, criticized Ken Ofori-Atta’s alleged conflict of interest position in government’s Eurobond transactions.
“I read a report yesterday that broke my heart, I saw how much Ghana owes but I also found that apparently, the minister of finance’s company or former company is a transaction advisor to the monies that we borrow. So as Ghana gets poorer, the minister of finance’s company or former company gets richer,” he stated when he appeared as a guest on GTV’s Breakfast Show programme.
Describing the situation as unacceptable, KKD accused parliament of also failing to defend the interest of the country by allowing such a practice to fester.
Source:NKONKONSA.com
