Minister of State-designate at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen, has contradicted claims made by the Finance Ministry that the Black Star Brokerage has not been appointed as an advisor to the Ministry.
During his vetting, he told the Appointments Committee that his firm, the Black Star brokerage, had been chosen as one of the consultants to the international markets programme, which involves the issuance of the Eurobond.
He was however quick to add that his firm did not participate or did any work in relation to the Eurobond.
“Mr. Chairman, my firm I can confirm took part in the bidding but not participate in the Eurobond issuance and hence did not have any engagement or sign any engagement document, nor were they paid any fees or conducted any business with the government.”
His assertions directly contradicted a news release issued by the Finance Ministry’s Public Relations Department, which said that Databank and Black Star Brokerage had not been engaged as consultants to the Ministry.
Portion of the said press statement reads in part, “From what we gather, the businesses to which the narrative refers are Databank and Black Star Brokerage. The Ministry wishes to say categorically that the claim that these two businesses have been hired as consultants to the Ministry of Finance is false,” the press release stated.
This was in response to an opinion piece written by Isaac Adongo, Member of Parliament for Bolga Central, who claimed that the appointment of Black Star Brokerage and Databank, which are owned by Charles Adu Boahen and Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, respectively, was in breach of the conflict of interest rule, while insisting that Mr. Adu Boahen’s nomination as Deputy Finance Minister should be denied on the grounds that he is unqualified for the position. Charles Adu Boahen explicitly said that he resigned from the Board of Directors and Management of Black Star Advisors at the start of 2017.
But it has emerged that Black Star Brokerage had played significant part in the Eurobond. Charles Adu Boahen told the committee that, Black Star Brokerage was appointed solely on the basis of merit. Thus, if he is approved to take the position of Deputy Finance Minister, there will be no conflict of interest.
“And in their present function as bond market specialists, they are solely motivated by performance, and I have no say or control over what they do. It is their obligation to generate money for the government when it issues bonds, and they are compensated for their capacity to do so,” he maintained.
