Presidential Advisor on the economy, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, has distanced himself from audio circulating on social media suggesting that he has blamed the woes of the Ghanaian economy on the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
According to him, he has never engaged anybody either by conversation or interview let alone made the said comments to be attributed to him.
His reaction follows a leaked audio tape believed to be the recorded voice of former Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation under the John Agyekum Kufuor government describing Dr Bawumia and Ken Ofori Atta as worse economic managers.
In the conversation, the accused said “Please, let’s forget it, we are not ‘breaking any 8,’ we are going to go into opposition, so brace yourselves and stop lying to yourselves. All is not well. We don’t have any men, forget it…We run our mouth that ‘we have the men, we have the men,’ with this team?”
“Ofori-Atta has not done a good job, he is one of the worst Finance Ministers we have ever had. The head of the Economic Management Team, Dr Bawumia is also as worse as Ofori-Atta. If we sit here and we think that we are going to break the 8, let’s forget it,” the audio contained.
The tape came at a time government has commenced negotiations with an entourage from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an economic bailout after they arrived in the country on July 5.
However, responding to the alleged tape in a rejoinder, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei stated categorically that he did not make the unfounded statement.
“My attention has been drawn to a post on Ghanaweb and other social media platforms including a purported leaked tape which has me allegedly commenting on the performance of the two personalities mentioned in the headline.
“The voice in the leaked tape is emphatically not mine. Neither do I subscribe to the alleged comments,” Dr Anthony Akoto Osei refuted in the statement.
The former Member of Parliament for Tafo Pankrono in the Ashanti Region is therefore demanding a rejoinder and an apology from Ghanaweb for what he described as “wicked allegations.”
Below is the full rejoinder
