From Vibe Ghana

Ghana is expected to conclude a program with the International Monetary Fund by end of February this year. This was revealed by the leader of the government’s team of negotiators talking with the IMF, Professor Kwesi Botchwey.

The country in September last year entered into negotiations with the Fund with the hope of securing a three -year program with the IMF. However due to some concerns raised by the EU, negotiations were briefly suspended.

The European Union raised issues with corruption and payroll fraud in the country’s public sector. The EU was reported as withholding a £135 million budget support to Ghana due to an alleged payroll corruption scandal it is investigating.

According to a British newspaper, Sunday Times, the EU anti-fraud agency was probing a mam­moth corruption scandal running into several million pounds in Ghana, being aid package from the EU to support the country’s budg­et among others.

The EU itself was accused of trying to cover up with Ingeborg Grässle, a German Member of the European Parliament who chairs the budget control committee that scrutinises EU spending, quoted as saying, “It is outrageous that the European Commission failed to inform the European Parliament about the potential loss of huge amounts of taxpayers’ money to corruption, even over a year after they froze the payments to Ghana.”

Read more at Vibe Ghana