The Minority in Parliament has averred that Minister-designate for Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson was evasive when he appeared before the Appointments Committee.
It is the view of the Minority that the nominee was also inconsistent and lacked clarity of thought throughout the vetting process.
According to the Minority, the nominee should have performed better than he did considering his position as a former Deputy Finance Minister.
At a press conference, in Accra on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Dr. Gideon Boako, Member of Parliament for Tano North added that Ato Forson was dismissive towards the Free SHS program and its potential extension to private schools.
He wondered why the party would make it a campaign promise to add private schools when they did not know the reality.
The MP also raised doubts about the promise to scrap the E-Levy and the betting tax as promised by the NDC.
‘’Hon. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, who appeared as the finance minister Designate, was evasive, inconsistent, and lacked clarity of thought. Having served as a Deputy Minister of Finance and a ranking member of the Finance Committee, one would have expected his answers to be forthright and to exude concrete solutions.
For instance, on the specific matter of whether the government would cater for the first-year tuition fees of tertiary students as promised, we found the Minister designate’s response highly disappointing. How can a finance minister designate look into the faces of parents and young Ghanaian students and say that because he is not yet the Minister, he cannot answer whether the pledge by President Mahama to pay for their fees would be honored? This is a clear way of telling our tertiary students that the NDC party deceived them into voting for them,’’ he said.
He added ‘’when asked about the Free SHS program and whether it would be extended to private schools as indicated in the NDC manifesto, the Minister Designate, in a very dismissive manner, asked whether those private schools write WASSCE exams. First, it was shocking to observe the minister designate feign ignorance of the fact that there are many private SHS that write the WASSCE. We can all recall that during the election campaign, President Mahama met the leadership of the private senior high schools and promised to include private schools in the free SHS programme.’’
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
