On Friday when Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta appeared before the parliamentary committee probing the censure motion for his removal from office, he was seen assisted closely by a woman.
The Minister, with the support of the “mystery” woman responded to all five allegations made against him and the woman assisted him take on the follow-up questions.
Ashantibiz.com checks has established the identity of the said woman as an Economist with the Ministry of Finance.
She is Eva Esselba Mends, a Coordinating Director of the Ministry of Finance appointed in 2017 by Ken Ofori-Atta.
Ms. Mends is also one of the supposed wives of late Emmanuel Kyerematen Agyarko, MP for Ayawaso West Wuogon who passed on 4 years ago.
She is an alumnus of University of Ghana, Legon, where she studied Political Science with Economics. She has an Executive Masters in Public Administration from GIMPA and has undertaken numerous courses over the years including at Harvard and Duke Universities, checks show.
She is a Public Financial Management expert and has extensive experience in Economic and Public Policy Formulation and Analysis, Budget Management, Aid Management, Fiscal Decentralization and Social Protection.
She assisted Ken Ofori-Atta to take on the questions one after the other and he was seen consulting her closely often.
Ms Menda served as the first female Director of Budget of the Ministry of Finance from May, 2017 to January, 2019 and is currently the Coordinating Director (Technical) for the Ministry of Finance.
Other facts show Ms Mends joined the Finance Ministry as a national service person in 1991 and since then has served in various capacities including, Head of The Americas Desk in 1998, Head of Budget Development in 2006 and Group Head of Public Financial Management reforms in 2013.
She is known to have led major reforms that include gender responsive budgeting, Programme Based Budgeting and the development of the new Public Financial Management Act. She is currently a coordinating director of the Ministry of Finance
Ashantibiz
