Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu is demanding caution in the celebration following the staff-level agreement arrived at by the government with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The jubilation, he said, is premature because what Ghana needed in the deal with the Fund is a management and board approval of Ghana’s application, which could happen as late as April or beyond.
Speaking to the media in Parliament on Tuesday, December 12, the Minority leader argued Ghana’s debt is still not sustainable and the debt exchange announced by the Finance Minister may fail as many are still refusing to sign onto the aid while the content of the external bonds still remains unknown.
The government, he said, is running out of time to announce the ‘haircut’ associated with the external bonds and questioned why the Minister is celebrating.
He said, “For the Minister of Finance to be dancing and say that praise me because I have brought an improvement in the exchange rate of the Cedi that was falling with some epileptic, he should ask himself at what rate did he inherit the dollar?”
“There is nothing to celebrate or honour him for what he has done in the last three months,” he stated.
Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, he said, has collapsed businesses and stressed the excruciating pains and hardships visited on the Ghanaian people are not likely to end soon and therefore staff-level management means nothing.
Mr. Haruna Iddrisu charged the Finance Minister to present Parliament with an IMF board and management approvals to warrant the celebration.
He argued the signed agreement also emphasizes reforms and yet in the 2023 budget there is nothing to conclude government is reforming and restructuring the economy, which could delay the deal further.
In another development, the Minority leader has reiterated the warning to Ministers to be present in Parliament to move the motion for the budgetary allocations to their various Ministries.
The Minority, he said, will bounce the estimates of ministries whose Ministers fail to appear before Parliament in person to argue for their allocations.
Seconding the Motion for adjournment just after ten minutes of sitting the Minority leader lamented the lack of work in the House and urged committees to present their reports for the House to approve.
He deplored the practice where work is piled till the last day and argued this does not bode well for Parliament’s work of oversight because MPs get little time to scrutinize whatever the executive presents to the House.