BoG Is Not Independent - Speaker Stresses

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin says the Central Bank of Ghana is not independent of the supervision of Parliament. 

His comment followed words by the Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare during her vetting that the legislative arm of government must thread with caution in the exercise of its oversight responsibility on the Bank of Ghana so as not to compromise the independence of the Central Bank. 

Commenting on the appointments committee’s report for the approval of some 11 Deputy Minister Designates and a Minister of State, the Speaker noted that the comment by the Deputy Minister is rather not the case.

“I don’t know where that independence is coming from, the independence of the central bank, the Bank of Ghana and so please, members will disagree that the bank of Ghana is still independent and cannot be scrutinized by parliament, there’s no such statement there at all," the Speaker said.

"The constitution is very clear as to the status of the bank of Ghana and please don’t add anything to it. I wasn’t there at the meeting when you were asked questions and that is what is stated in the report,” he added

"He finally emphasized the fact that there is no concept like the independence of the bank of Ghana in our constitution."

The Deputy Minister who was present in the House expressed reservations about the issue. According to her, she never made such an assertion, urging the committee to expunge that portion from the report.

“Thank you Mr Speaker but I want to put in records that I never said that we cannot scrutinize the bank of Ghana during my vetting.

"I only mentioned that it is an independent institution and I know that they also go through the audit that all agencies go through at the end of the year that was what I said but I never stated categorically I am advising parliament to tread consciously so that effort to demand parliamentary scrutiny the budget is not done,” she explained 

“Respectfully Mr Speaker they were asking the ministry of finance to scrutiny and I said the bank of Ghana is independent, hence the bank of Ghana cannot be scrutinized and this can be expanded from the report,” she stressed 

Ahenkorah Mary Odura, Accra