AfDB insists Sanction letter sent to Ghana is an error
According to documents made available to the Daily Graphic by the AfDB, the bank wrote to withdraw the sanctions it imposed in error after its attention had been drawn to the fact that the country had long made good its obligation to the bank.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) insists that the letter it sent to Ghana about sanctions resulting from the non-payment of the country’s debt is an error.
According to documents made available to the Daily Graphic by the AfDB, the bank wrote to withdraw the sanctions it imposed in error after its attention had been drawn to the fact that the country had long made good its obligation to the bank.
In a letter dated February 18, 2015, with reference number FFCO4/BSK/2015/0155, the AfDB erroneously said “sanctions have been imposed” on Ghana in respect of arrears of Bank Group bills.
However, the bank, on that same day, corrected its earlier error in a letter with reference number FFCO4/BSK/2015/0158.
The AfDB last week denied claims by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the running mate of the NPP’s presidential candidate for the 2016 election, that Ghana was facing sanctions for defaulting in the payment of its bills.
It explained in the statement that the inclusion of Ghana in the list of sanctioned countries was an internal administrative error.
Reference had, however, been made by some people to the letter with number FFCO4/BSK/2015/0155 and addressed to the Director of the Debt Management Division at the Ministry of Finance in which the ministry was informed of the application of the sanctions.
But speaking to the Daily Graphic and supporting their position with documents sent by email, officials of the AfDB said the letter had been sent in error because Ghana had long made payment and was in good standing.
“The error was detected after the letter had been emailed to the Ghana Ministry, and following protests we received, we checked and found out that, indeed, Ghana had long made payment,” one senior official stated.
When contacted, a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Ato Forson, said in addition to the letter from the AfDB, the bank also issued two separate documents on February 18 and March 13 to affirm the fact that Ghana was not and had never been under sanctions.
“You can see clearly that the 18th February letter Dr Bawumia’s spokespersons are pushing around is no defence. He deliberately relied on the earlier document that the bank had stated was issued in error to put out falsehood to tarnish the image of the country,” he said.
Credit: Daily Graphic Ghana
