$2.25bn bond didn’t need AG’s advice - NPP

Deputy Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says there was no need to have sought legal advice from the Attorney General’s Department regarding government’s recent issuance of a US$2.25billion domestic bond.

“The question is do bonds with the book-building approach go the Attorney General’s Department for advice? No, they don’t. Again nothing strange has happened. They don’t go because you have gone for the initial approval from parliament. What you now issue when you are going along is the guidelines and the prospective; it doesn’t go to the AG’s department for advice,” Mr Oppong Nkrumah said on Wednesday.

His comments comes on the back of a revelation by Attorney General and Minister of Justice Gloria Akuffo that she was not aware of the bond despite suggestions that a deal of that nature required her input.

Ms Akuffo says she heard of the news of the bond issuance for the first time through a press conference held by the Minority in Parliament at which it was alleged that the deal was cooked to benefit some business partners of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

“I don’t know whether, as a matter of fact, these things have happened in what form or on what date which should inform any legal position on my part.”

However, Mr Oppong Nkrumah said: “This is not an international finance transaction … this is the type of transaction that we have done since 2015 and it does not go for legal advice, so nothing strange has happened here,” Mr Oppong Nkrumah told Accra-based Radio XYZ on Wednesday, 19 April.