The Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) Caucus in Parliament has taken their pursuit for full disclosure of information regarding the issuance of the US$2.25 bond to another level by filing a Whistleblower complaint with a regulator in Luxembourg.

The regulator known as the Commission de Surveillance de Secteur Financier (CSSF) is to investigate whether Franklin Templeton used a company registered in Luxembourg to purchase 95% of the much talked about US$ 2.25 billion bond.

This Whistleblower complaint, Kasapafmonline.com understands was filed on behalf of the group by Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, MP for Bolgatanga East, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu, and Isaac Adongo, MP for Bolgatanga Central.

The NDC lawmakers suspect that although the parent company, Franklin Templeton was registered in the United States of America, it used a subsidiary company in Luxembourg in purchasing the bonds.

The group’s action, according to its leader, Haruna Iddrisu, is to satisfy additional jurisdictional issues having already filed a petition at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States of America on the same issue.

“We now have two external petitions filed on this matter and wish to assure the nation that we would continue to cooperate with ongoing international investigations to the best of our abilities and with all good intentions in the supreme interest of Ghana,” Mr. Iddrisu told journalists at a press conference in Accra, Wednesday.

The CSSF, this website is told, has already started their investigations into the matter.

Jennifer Carr, according to the Minority, has also been appointed to spearhead investigations in their petition filed at the SEC in the USA.

The recent bond issued by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government has raised numerous issues from the Minority, who has, and is still arguing that the Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta had caused financial loss to the state regarding the said deal.

In an attempt to demand for full disclosure on the issuance of the bond, Mr. Iddrisu on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 filed a Half-Hour motion which sought to compel the Minister of Finance to make available to Parliament “the full complement of documentation related to the issuance, the participants, the utilization of proceeds and the currency in which the bond was settled.”

The motion followed a petition to the SEC of Ghana, among other ways to question the Finance Minister about the bond.

Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta has maintained that the bond did more good than harm to the Ghanaian economy.

 


Source: kasapafmonline