AfDB 3rd Sanction Letter Pops Up

It has now emerged that the African Development Bank (AfDB) had cause to caution the Government of Ghana (GoG) not less than three times before it eventually suspended the country from accessing its facilities.

Management of the bank recently came out to deny claims by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) - who is also the vice presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) - that it (AfDB) had sanctioned Ghana from their dealings. The bank said the matter of sanction, which was a memo, was an administrative error committed on February 18, 2015.

But a later memo dated February 17, 2015, conveying the suspension popped up, raising doubts about the AfDB's credibility regarding its rejoinder.

Another letter has emerged indicating that the bank indeed warned President Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration three consecutive times before imposing the sanction.

The letter was dated January 1, 2015, headed, 'Third and last reminder,' signed by one Josselyne Ahogny and addressed to Samuel D. Ameyaw, director of Debt Management Division at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, under the subject of 'Loans arrears on bills and due on 01 January, 2015.'

It stated, 'We wish to remind you that as of today, we have not received full payment in respect of Bank Group bills, as per the attached Arrears Report.

'We count on your prompt action for the timely settlement of the amounts due to enable the clearance of the arrears.

We would appreciate it if you could provide details of any payment made,' with a warning, 'Please note that sanctions will be imposed if full payment of the arrears is not received by the end of the month.'

However, an internal memo dated February 17, 2015 from the AfDB suggests that Ghana was at least on the list of sanctioned countries for many weeks before if any corrections at all, as they claimed, were effected.

The bank stated that 'Ghana is not on the list of countries under sanctions by the AfDB,” suggesting that 'On 18 February 2015, due to an administrative oversight, Ghana was erroneously included in the list of countries under sanctions by the AfDB and that the error was detected that same day and a corrected list was immediately issued in replacement.'

It also confirmed the revelation by Dr Bawumia that Ghana was indeed sanctioned by the bank and that the statement by AfDB that the inclusion of Ghana on the list of sanctioned countries, could not have been true.

Instead, the memo referred to a list prepared on January 31, 2015 which listed Ghana as one of the countries affected by AfDB sanctions with the memo indicating that the sanction against Ghana was effective on January 2, 2015.

The emergence of the AfDB's own internal memo of 17 February clearly contradicts the suggestion by the bank that the inclusion of Ghana on the list was an administrative error which appeared on its website and was corrected.

So far, neither the AfDB nor the Mahama-led NDC government has been able to provide any details on the so-called administrative oversight or error.

BY Charles Takyi- Boadu