President nominee and outgoing Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mr. Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has strongly defended his outfit’s role in the payment of the controversial over Ghs 51 million judgment debt to businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

Appearing before Parliament’s Vetting Committee on Monday to justify why he should be appointed Vice President of Ghana, Mr Amissah-Arthur said there was nothing his outfit could have done to prevent the payment so long as a legal order was issued by the Accountant General which operates Government’s accounts.
Some Ghanaians especially those from the opposition NPP have accused Mr. Amissah-Arthur of doing nothing to stop the payment of the 51.2 Million Ghana Cedis paid to Woyome.

But reacting to a question posed to him by the Member of Parliament for Akim Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea, Mr Amissah-Arthur insisted that the BoG did not receive any instruction from the Presidency not to pay [the Woyome judgment debt] and so long as Government’s account is in credit, BoG was under instruction to pay.

“Mr Chairman, the Bank of Ghana did not receive any instruction from the Presidency not to pay. I must explain that we hold Government’s accounts. If the account is in credit and the people who carry the mandate to operate that account provide a legitimate instrument we always honour that instrument.

“So if there is money in the account and they say that pay Mr A, we are not going to ask whether Mr A is providing a service or not...

“If we find that there is no money there, or the activity is clearly outside of the budget, then we can draw attention to the fact that there’s something wrong and they should look at it again. But we cannot refuse to pay a legitimate instruction if there is credit in the account."

Listen to the attached tape for Mr Amissah-Arthur’s full response