I’m Being Forced To Sack Finance Minister – Prez Mahama

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Created on Thursday, 16 January 2014 00:00

I’m Being Forced To Sack Finance Minister – Prez Mahama

16 January 2014

President John Mahama says there’s pressure mounting on him from within his own government to sack his finance Minister.

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He said certain reforms being engineered by Seth Terkper to tweak the economy to not only break the cycle of ills inherent within it but also fix certain fiscal weaknesses through some reforms, have got tongues wagging in the government, thus the pressure for his dismissal.

“I mean several times they’ve interceded with me to sack Seth because he’s hurting the politics. He doesn’t understand the politics. ‘If there’s no money he should go and borrow’, as if it were that easy”, the President said, in jest, when he met the new managing director of Barclays Bank Ghana, Patience Akyianu, at the Flagstaff House Wednesday.

According to him: “…It’s a vicious cycle we need to break and that is why a lot of the reforms that Seth is carrying out in the finance ministry with regards to the GIFMIS and making sure we budget properly and MDAs follow budget discipline and all that are issues that we’re trying to introduce”.

GIFMIS is the acronym for the Ghana Integrated Management Information System.

It involves the use of a number of integrated electronic financial modules in the management of public funds, thereby reducing the human element as a means of reducing corruption.

President Mahama said the reforms are meeting some internal opposition within certain circles in government because they appear to be politically imprudent.

“…People have been used to the bad old ways for so long that it’s very difficult to change the attitude to see what is happening”, he bewailed.

Source: XYZ News