Ato Forson has crippled Mahama’s Ministers – Stephen Atubiga

According to Stephen Atubiga, Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ato Forson, has crippled President John Mahama’s ministers.

He argued that all the sectors of Mahama’s ministers are not functioning because funds are not being released by the Finance Minister.

In a Facebook post, Stephen Atubiga stated, “My brothers, all is not well on the ground behind big brother JDM’s government.

If you do not immediately take strategic positions behind the scenes to support JDM and help him run his government alongside the party structure, just as former President Nana Akufo-Addo’s family did for him during his crisis, you will see stones thrown at leadership towards the 2028 elections. People will remove their shoes and sandals and run for their lives from the anger of the grassroots.

Are you all pretending you don’t know that JDM’s government is collapsing internally? Shame on us all.

All his sector Ministers are not functioning because funds are not being released by the Finance Minister. The requirement for clearance from the Finance Minister has crippled the Ministers. That is a topic for another day”.

In related news, Hassan Ayariga, the founder and Leader of the All People’s Congress (APC), has criticised the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, over his handling of government funds.

According to Hassan Ayariga, Ato Forson is holding on to funds approved by Parliament, leaving several ministries struggling to carry out their activities.

He described Ato Forson as sitting on so much money and acting like a demigod while ministries are struggling.

Speaking in an interview on Metro TV, Hassan Ayariga fumed, saying, “We have a Finance Minister today who is sitting on so much money, and all the ministries are struggling. With the intention that we don’t want to give money to the ministries because we have to do what is called commitment authorisation before you are given money to do a project.

“Some ministers have projects in front of them that have gone through Parliament, received ratification and had their budgets approved by Parliament. The Minister for Finance sits in his office and becomes a demigod and is not releasing resources to any of them,” he said.

He further alleged that despite the delays in releasing funds to the various ministries, the Finance Minister has been holding meetings in other regions every week.

Hassan Ayariga questioned the need for the minister to travel regularly for press conferences and meetings while funds needed by the ministries remained unavailable.

He alleged, “I saw him say something like that, which actually made me so upset, that he doesn’t want to release money for them to go and be having conferences and travel anyhow and do what? What do you mean? Every week, you go to Volta Serene Hotel.

“Drive from Accra every week. The hotel is owned by Sky, something like that. You are driving every day, every week, to go and have press conferences and to go and have meetings. That is not an expenditure,” he added.