Go to Parliament to see how we are using loans – Mahama replies critics

President John Dramani Mahama has hit back at critics who have accused his administration of misappropriating loans meant for infrastructural development.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice-Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 Election, has been one of the President’s fiercest critics, accusing his administration and that of his predecessor, Late Prof. John Atta Mills, of ‘blowing’ over $27 billion in loans.

“In the last six years, the NDC has borrowed US$27 billion.  Before that, we, the NPP, borrowed a total of US$5.5 billion in eight years.  Compare that to the NDC borrowing $27 billion in six years and ask yourself what have they done with all that money,” Dr Bawumia said in London recently.

But speaking Wednesday on Kumasi-based Angel FM, on the occasion of his second year in power, President Mahama disputed claims that his government had nothing to show for the loans.

He also rejected assertions that he had reduced governance to borrowing, noting that Ex-President John Agyekum Kufour also brought numerous loans to Parliament for approval when NPP was in the majority there. The President was then a Member of Parliament Bole-Bamboi.

“We approved them. I cannot sit here today and say I don’t know what President Kufour did with the loans,” President Mahama said.

According to him, all the projects for which his administration secured loans can easily be tracked at Parliament.

“Every international agreement must be submitted to Parliament. So anyone who wants to see what we’ve done with the loans should go to Parliament. They will give them the documents –every single Parliament for which we’ve taken a loan, there is record for it at Parliament,” he said.

The President added that it was the responsibility of the media to undertake research and keep the public informed on what the loans had been used for.

“Often, it is the media which should explain… you have to research… you have go for the record of the loans my administration has taken since 7th January [2012] and research it. Go to the project sites and see whether the work has been done or not,” he emphasised.

Source: Graphic