Private legal practitioner, Jonathan Amable has petitioned the Supreme Court to cite the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam for contempt over continued borrowing on the treasury bills market without parliamentary approval.
The lawyer contends that the Finance Minister has defied an injunction application, filed on November 11, 2024 aimed at enforcing Article 181 of the 1992 Constitution which mandates parliamentary approval for all government borrowings.
He highlights that over GHS 20 billion has been borrowed within the last four weeks, despite the injunction application being pending before the court.
In an interview with Citi Business News, Amable urged the Supreme Court to expedite the hearing of the case.
“We filed a contempt application against the Ministry of Finance for issuing treasury bills despite being served with the injunction. Additionally, we have written to the court’s registry to urgently assign a hearing date for the injunction application initially scheduled for November 27,” he explained.
Amable also criticized the Attorney General for failing to respond to the ongoing case, which seeks to stop the government’s issuance of Treasury Bills without parliamentary consent.
He warns that such unconstitutional borrowings, if unaddressed, could have serious consequences for Ghana’s economy.
“That despite the pendency of and since the filing of the application for interlocutory injunction, the Respondent has issued treasury bills on four occasions, raising aggregate amounts of approximately GHS 5.2 billion, GHS 6.4 billion, GHS 3.8 billion and GHS 5.2 billion for the four consecutive weeks following immediately after the filing of the application for interlocutory injection.”
“Altogether, the Respondent has raised new loans of GHS 20.6 billion since the filing of the injunction application and has evinced an intention to borrow an additional GHS 6.8 billion on 13th December, 2024”, parts of the petition read.
