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Information Minister, Mahama Ayariga has dismissed the assertion that president Mahama interfered with Merchant Bank recovering a debt owed it by Engineers and Planners, a company owned by his brother, Ibrahim Mahama. �There was no attempt by the president to stop Merchant Bank from recovering its loan from Engineers and Planners� he stated. Media reports and letters written by the Merchant Bank board indicate that meetings were held in 2012 between President Mahama, then Vice President, members of the board and representatives of the Engineers and Planners. The letters also said the company�s debt was substantial and has to be recovered. According to the letter, the debt constituted 30 percent of its 50 per cent non-performing loan portfolio. The documents also suggest the presidency sought to intervene in the Bank�s loan recovery process. But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday Mahama Ayariga said "the context in which President Mahama, then Vice President got involved in that discussion was because of the petition and that the fact that he got drawn into it by his boss who wanted him to participate in the deliberation and the discussions." According to the Information Minister, President Mahama "never ever tried to stop Merchant Bank from recovering its loan and he has never given any directive that the president tried in any way to stop the bank from recovering its loans." "The Vice President then did not on his own just summon Merchant Bank on any issue regarding its facilitate to Engineers and Planners," he reiterated. He also said that President Mahama only intervened in the matter because the lawyers of Engineers and Planners petitioned the presidency and not because the debtor is his brother. "He [President Mahama] didn't decide to sit in the meeting, he was not the one resolving the issue; there is a higher authority that is resolving the issue and that higher authority was not the brother of Engineers and Planners..." "He was not the one determining the matter and so there was no issue of conflict of interest, the person determining the matter was the then President [John Mills]," Mr Ayariga added. Mr. Ayariga said the then Vice President has never been an obstacle in the way of Merchant Bank reclaiming their loan from Engineers and Planners and never issued any inappropriate directive to the bank.