Ato Forson used 'fictitious' figures to counter Bawumia - Kweku Baako

The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul-Malik Kweku Baako, has accused Mr Cassiel Ato-Forson, a former Deputy Finance Minister of peddling falsehoods in using "fictitious" figures to counter what Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia used in his delivery during the Town Hall Meeting organised by the Economic Management Team.

Speaking on Accra based Joy FM’s news analysis programme Newsfile on Saturday, Mr Baako said Mr Ato-Forson was disingenuous in the figures he claimed was found on the website of the Ministry of Finance and used same to create the impression that it represented the actual non-rebased deficit figure of 2016.

"Ato-Forson indicated that on the website of the Ministry of Finance, the non-rebased deficit figure for the fiscal year of 2016 was 7.8 per cent."

"The 7.8 per cent quoted figure is even wrong because the website has 8.7 per cent but not 7.8 per cent as Ato-Forson claimed," Mr Baako said.

“The fact of the matter, however, is that the figure he used was a provisional outturn 2016 deficit figure. The actual (not provisional) non-rebased fiscal deficit figure for 2016 is clearly provided for in the mid-year budget of 2017 as well as 2018 and 2019 budgets. Running through these budgets, the figure mentioned is 9.3%, and this is in conformity to what Dr. Bawumia, the Vice President said” Mr. Baako said.

According to Mr. Baako, the former Deputy Finance Minister under John Mahama and the current ranking member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, engaged in "lies" in his inglorious attempts to score political points out of the figures he used.

He said Fifi Kwetey, the NDC representative on the programme also found it difficult trying to puncture holes in the figures the Vice President had used in his presentation, contrary to the noise the party members were making that Dr. Bawumia had used ‘fake’ figures to ferry his message across.