Former Chief of Staff in the President Kufuor administration, Kwadwo Mpiani says he would have resigned if he was the Finance Minister following the decision of the government to seek economic support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to Mr Mpiani, the utterances of the current Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta before the government decided to seek the intervention of the International Monetary Fund make him unfit for the role.
“Honestly, If I were the Finance Minister (Ken Ofori-Atta) this is not a question of the President dropping me, from my utterances and then what is happening, I would just say Mr President, thank you so much, I think it’s time for me to sit back for another person to take over,” Mr Mpiani said in an interview with Joy News.
It will be recalled that in February this year, Mr Ofori-Atta said the government had no intention to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout but will resort to available means within the country to generate revenue.
This u-turn by the government which yesterday concluded preliminary engagements with the IMF on an economic support programme has resulted in critics calling for his resignation over his pronouncements on IMF support.
Reshuffle President’s prerogative
Insisting that reshuffling Ministers was the sole prerogative of the President, Mr Mpiani said like all Ghanaians he was concerned about the performance of some of the President’s appointees.
He said if he had the opportunity to advise President Akufo-Addo, he would urge him to drop some inefficient Ministers.
“It’s the prerogative of the President, if he believes that all these people are working well, fine. But a listening President will try and find out what the people think…,” he said.
“I would advise him to drop some of the Ministers and bring in some [new ones]”.
Stopping short of naming the Ministers who should be dropped by the President, Mr Mpiani stressed that he would have resigned if he was the Finance Minister.