The Minority Ranking Member for Finance in Parliament, Anthony Akoto Osei, has revealed that the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress administration has doled out a whopping US$54 million as commitment fees to the China Development Bank in the hope of securing the much-hyped US$3 billion loan.
Dr Akoto Osei made this known at a �forum on Mahama in 2013� organized by the NPP at its headquarters, where he touched on the mismanagement of the economy by the Mahama government and the NDC�s frustration to secure the $3 billion loan at all cost.
The NPP MP explained that 75% of this year�s capital expenditure programme is funded from foreign sources, with as much as 78% being dependent on expected disbursements from the Chinese loan.
�To be more precise, government expects that about $1.6 billion will be disbursed from the Chinese loan this year,� he said.
However, Dr Akoto Osei noted that in three years since the loan was approved only about $600 million has been disbursed, and for which Government has had to pay a whopping S$54 million in 3 years.
Dr Akoto Osei wondered how Government which had obtained only $600 million in 3 years, an average of $200 million a year, expected to obtain $1.6 billion a year.
Meanwhile, The Al Hajj, a pro-NDC paper edited by Alhaji Bature, has revealed that the government has actually paid US$100 million for the US$600 million loan disbursed by the CDB.
According to the paper, the �Chinese have schemed to heartlessly continue to bleed the nation�s already struggling kitty with demands for the payment of almost USD30m as commitment fees on the China Development Bank (CDB) USD3bn every year.�
The paper is of the view that the arrest and deportation of Chinese nationals for their part in the illegal mining scourge is one of the reasons why the CDB is not willing to disburse the remaining US$2.4 billion.
The CDB loan, which was targeted at the transformation of the Ghanaian infrastructure, has been in abeyance for almost three years after the consummation of the agreement.
The initial plan was for the Chinese to disburse the full amount in three years in three tranches, in some of the most productive areas of the Ghanaian national economy seen as one of the biggest in the West-African sub-region.
USD1bn was to go into the ambitious gas infrastructural sector and the remaining amount will basically go into agriculture, rail and port transportation.
However, since the signing of the final agreement, the Chinese have been able to disburse only USD600m to the Ghanaian government for the gas project which is under the control of the Ghana Gas company.
So far, according to the paper, Ghana has paid a cumulative amount of about USD100m to the Chinese for the disbursement of a paltry USD600m, a situation described as not only absurd, but nauseating by many experts who spoke to this paper on condition of anonymity.
This amount includes other charges and fees apart from the commitment fees that are to be paid annually until the whole amount is fully disbursed.
The paper further intimated that the Chinese officials are dithering in the release of the funds because of their fear about the viability of the projects earmarked by the NDC government for which the funds are to be applied.
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