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The Amissah-Arthur Vetting Report - Background Checks
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- Parent Category: Main
- Category: Special Reports
- Created on Tuesday, 14 August 2012 00:00
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*Background Checks:
The Chairman informed the nominee and Members that a background check had been done on the nominee. The Criminal Investigations Department of the Police Service reported that they had no criminal record on the nominee. The Bureau of National Investigations reported that the nominee had not come to “security notice”. The nominee is a registered voter and has obtained a tax clearance certificate from the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Also, as at the time of public hearing, no petition had been received by the Committee on his nomination.
*Concurrent lecturing in Ghana and Nigeria:
The nominee explained that when he decided to sojourn to Nigeria in 1981, he was advised by the University to put in a resignation with a promise that he could return to the University without counting the period of resignation. He said in 1983 when the University was re-opened, he returned to teach at the University whilst serving as a Special Assistant to the PNDC Secretary and later as Deputy Secretary of Finance.The nominee continued to lecture at the University of Ghana despite his political appointments until the promulgation of the 1992 Constitution when he formally resigned.
As to whether he drew different salaries in his double role as a political appointee and a lecturer, the nominee stated that as a Deputy PNDC Secretary, he opted to take his salary at the University of Ghana since at that time, the PNDC secretaries were paid allowances which were far inferior to the salaries offered by the University.
*View on the State of the Economy:
As to whether in view of the rising prices of items in the market and the rapid depreciation of the Cedi, he was happy with the current state of the Ghanaian economy, Mr. Amissah-Arthur stated that despite these factors, the economy had also chalked some successes and cited for instance that the non-oil economy has seen growth in excess of 8% for the past 2 years.
He averred that whilst the prices of a few particular commodities may have gone up, the rate of increase of prices of most items have been relatively slow, resulting in the country recording single digit inflation for the past two years.
*Advice on the Economy:
Portions of the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612) were read to the nominee after which he was asked to name one advice he gave to government that helped to save the cedi from depreciating.
The nominee explained that the Bank of Ghana is in charge of managing the monetary policy and therefore did not just give advice to the government but actually took decisions and steps to secure the value of the Cedi. He attributed the fall in the value of the Cedi to pressures from imports which have doubled over the last two (2) years.
*Dollar withdrawal:
The nominee informed the Committee that the Bank of Ghana, in its anti money-laundering drive, has given directives to commercial banks to ensure that over the counter withdrawals of dollars are limited. Also, the Bank’s requirement that financial institutions maintain a cedi equivalent reserve in respect of dollar deposits held has caused some of the institutions to charge a minimal percentage on counter withdrawals of dollars.
