Ranking member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has outlined reasons why he believes the country has been plunged into the current economic quagmire.
The Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam MP has consistently warned that unless the Akufo-Addo government commits itself to find solutions to the mounting economic challenges at a stakeholders’ forum, Ghana’s dire times will persist.
In August 2021, he prayed the government to invite expertise and advice from others outside the executive arm of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government just as happened at the Senchi Forum during the era of President John Mahama but to no avail.
In a Facebook post on Saturday the former Deputy Minister pointed at the size of the Akufo-Addo government since it assumed the reins of government in 2017 as an avenue where taxpayers’ monies have been siphoned away.
He wrote:
1. The NPP has the largest size of government in the history of Ghana! Find out how many ministers they’ve appointed from 2017. At one point, they had over 125 ministers!
2. This government has over 1,000 presidential staffers paid as article 71 office holders at the jubilee House!
3. They’ve also appointed so many special assistants to ministers with emoluments close to that of deputy ministers at the various MDA’s.
Take also into consideration:
4. The number of spokespersons at various MDA’s paid above the pay of Directors!
5. The number of CEO’s at various State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) and their pay packages! Many of these SOEs now employ 3 or 4 deputy CEOs with fat conditions of service!
6. The impact of the Over 50 new agencies with zero output, eg. CODA, NADA, MBDA, free SHS secretariat, 1D1F secretariat, Petroleum Hub Development Authority, Ghana cares Secretariat, etc
7. The unconscionable decision to send over 100 Databank staff to the Finance Ministry as special assistants and paid as customs commissioners on GRA’s payroll!
Both President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Finance Ken Ofori-Atta at different platforms and times have admitted the country has landed itself in serious economic downturn but insisted this is primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war.
Presently, the country’s inflation stands at 54.1 percent, and the cedi still struggling against the major foreign currencies despite the marginal gains it made this year.
This, however, comes on the heels of a free fall in December last year, which level has not yet been recovered.
The government is currently seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and has since got a Staff Level Agreement (SLA) with hopes the deal will be sealed sometime in the first quarter of this year.
However, to sustain the country’s debts, government has introduced a debt exchange programme, which has been widely rejected.
Mr. Ato Forson had, in another post on his social media handles earlier this month, predicted doom for various sectors of the economy with greater emphasis on the Banking Sector and indicated its health will be affected adversely.
The ‘haircut’ on domestic bonds and Eurobond, he said, is expected to adversely impact the health of the banking sector, local businesses, and individuals and stressed the bilateral debt restructuring will also lead to government’s foreign financed projects being abandoned.
