Ofori-Atta has more integrity than 99% of politicians I know in Ghana – Prof. Stephen Adei

Former Board Chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Professor Stephen Adei has expressed his displeasure over the manner in which MPs demanded the dismissal of Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.

Some 98 Majority NPP MPs earlier this month held a press conference in Parliament and demanded that President Akufo-Addo relieves his cousin of his post for what they described as mismanagement of the economy.

The Minority in Parliament subsequently filed a censure motion to seek to remove the Minister from office.

But Prof. Adei is unhappy with the turn of events concerning the calls for Ofori-Atta’s dismissal.

According to him, there are better ways to handle issues relating to his impeachment rather than tarnish the hard-earned reputation of Mr. Ofori-Atta.

“Our leaders [Members of Parliament] must be very careful when they want to impugn the person’s integrity and almost branding him as a thief. I have no doubt at all that Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta has more integrity than 99 percent of all politicians I know in Ghana,” Prof Adei said.

Speaking on Upfront on Wednesday, the former GIMPA Rector said that two out of the seven charges leveled against the Minister by the Minority MPs were quite worrisome as they dented his high-earned reputation.

“The charges on conflict of interest and the fact that he was supposed to have stashed some 100 million dollars elsewhere which impugn on his integrity. I have known Mr. Ofori-Atta for almost 23 years, I can say that he is a friend, a businessman of high integrity and therefore, for me, those two charges were very troubling,” he told host Raymond Acquah.

“I believe that the NPP came into power over-committing themselves, there is over-borrowing and you know, you might disagree with policy and of course, there were internal and external factors, but I do not think that it is fair to impugn on the integrity of Ken Ofori-Atta. I know him personally as a Christian, as a businessman and as a politician,” he added.

The former Board Chairman of the GRA noted that “If there is anybody in Ghana I can vouch for, none of his accusers can stand his integrity.”

Touching on some key policies in the proposed 2023 budget, he disagreed with the proposed 2.5% VAT increment.