Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, a former Deputy Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, has called the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah’s decision to store large quantities of foreign hard money at her residence illegal.
Mr. Ricketts-Hagan stated that the previous minister’s activities were not only illegal, but also disloyal, given that Ghana was in financial distress and required dollars to get out of a debt trap, despite having so much money at home.
Speaking to Umaru Sanda Amadu on Face to Face on Citi TV, the Cape Coast South legislator sarcastically advised the government to appeal to some of its appointees to bring out the dollars they are allegedly hoarding to help revive the ailing cedi.
“It is against the law to be keeping that much dollars in anybody’s house, and you will have to have a good explanation why you have $1 million in your house especially when the person we are talking about is a government official.”
“$1 million sitting in your house means you are keeping $1 million out of the economy and creating an artificial shortage and with Cecilia Dapaah’s incident, maybe government appointees can save the economy better than the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when they bring out their dollars.”
“It is a worrying situation, and you are actually keeping dollars and creating an artificial shortage because we don’t know how many people we have out there keeping $1 million,” Mr. Ricketts-Hagan further stressed.
It emerged on Friday, July 21 that two house helps of the Minister were facing charges before an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly stealing an amount of $1 million, €300,000, and millions of Ghanaian cedis at the former minister’s residence at Abelenkpe, Accra, in October 2022.
The two, 18-year-old Patience Botwe and 30-year-old Sarah Agyei allegedly stole the monies and personal effects of the couple, between the months of July and October 2022.
Both have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit a crime and five counts of stealing US$1 million, €300,000 and millions of Ghana cedis.
Cecilia Dapaah is currently being investigated by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
