Your flimsy justifications can’t erase your criminal conduct, illegal money printing – Minority hits back at BoG

The Minority Caucus in Parliament has hit back at the Bank of Ghana's (BoG) defense on printing excess money in 2021 and 2022, describing it as "full of deliberate distortions and flimsy justifications."

In a statement on Friday, August 11, the Minority dismissed BoG's Tuesday press release explaining the GHS60 billion loss and negative equity recorded last year.

Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson said the central bank's response "does not address the most fundamental issue" regarding the illegal printing of money.

"The referenced Bank of Ghana’s statement does not address the most fundamental issue which has to do with the printing of money by BOG for the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government in 2021 and 2022 in clear contravention of Section 30 of the Bank of Ghana (Amendment) Act, 2016 (ACT 918)," the statement read in part.

Dr. Ato Forson accused BoG of "recklessness and mismanagement" by printing GHS35 billion in 2021 and GHS42 billion in 2022, exceeding the legal threshold of 5% of previous years' revenues.

He said this was done without notifying Parliament as required by law.

"This illegal conduct of the Governor of BOG constitutes a criminal offense under section 67 of the Bank of Ghana Act and cannot be wished away by the flimsy justifications mounted by the Bank," the statement added.

The Ajumako Enyan Essiam lawmaker said the excessive money printing fueled inflation to a record high of 54.1% in Dec 2022, plunging over 850,000 people into poverty per World Bank data.

He continued, "It is therefore totally irresponsible for the managers of the Bank of Ghana to conveniently ignore these serious legal infractions which have brought untold hardships on Ghanaians."