The Appointments Committee of Parliament will host the Minister-designate for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, tomorrow, the 25th of March 2021, the only Minister nominee of President Akufo-Addo who is yet to be vetted.
The Finance Minister-designate was supposed to have been vetted by the Appointments Committee on the 8th of March 2021. His vetting was postponed due to some post COVID-19 recovery complications he suffered. Ken Ofori-Atta upon advise from his doctors, traveled to the United States for specialized treatment.
Mr. Ofori-Atta left the shores of the country on the 14th of February 2021 after the Finance Ministry announced that the President’s representative at that Ministry, will travel to the United States (US) for an important medical review.
Mr. Ofori-Atta spent about thirty (30) days at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA, where he received specialized treatment for post COVID-19 complications. Asaase News understands that while the Finance Minister is clearly on a mend with regard to the medical challenge he suffered, his doctors have advised that he reduces his work load in order to ensure that he makes a complete recovery.
As a result of the health challenge of the Finance Minister designate, for the first time in the history of the 1992 fourth republican constitution, the budget and economic policy of a ruling government for a fiscal year (2021), was presented to Parliament by another Minister (Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs and Leader of Government Business in the House) instead of the Finance Minister. The budget received Parliamentary approval on the 19th of March 2021 by a majority vote of 137 as against 134.
All of President Akufo-Addo’s Substantive Ministers of State and Regional Ministers have been vetted by Parliament’s Appointment Committee and have subsequently been sworn into office by the President following Parliamentary approval with the exception of the Finance Minister designate, Ken Ofori-Atta, due to his ill-health which took him away from the country.
Mr. Ofori-Atta’s vetting session by the Appointments Committee of Parliament is expected to be dominated by the banking sector clean-up that took place during the first term administration of President Akufo-Addo under his watch as Finance Minister as well as matters surrounding the “Agyapa Gold Royalties Deal”, a policy of the Akufo-Addo government that became heavily politicized last year prior to the 7th of December 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com
