Gov’t cutting expenditures to the bone – Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said the government has been “cutting expenditures to the bone”

Ofori-Atta said, “…certainly we have a team that is going to continue to be vigilant about what MMDAs spend.”

He said the country is on course with the national expenditure rationalisation efforts.

There has been an incessant call for the government to cut down on expenditures to ensure debt sustainability.

For instance, CDD-Ghana boss H Kwasi Prempeh has said although there is the need to raise more revenue domestically, the government has been profligate in its spending.

He maintains that the citizens must feel confident in the ability of the government to judiciously make use of revenue collected before they can be willing to contribute more.

In the first quarter of 2022, the government decided to suspend roughly 20% of the budgeted expenditure for that year.

The move, according to the Finance Minister will make the government’s fiscal consolidation agenda both expenditure-focused and revenue-led.

Ofori-Atta said “…I think the issue of certain structural reforms which we are discussing with a lot of people are also what is expected of this government. Some had decisions including a debt exchange, reforms, commitment basis for expenditure etc. How do we look at the ministries? What are we going to do about these flagship programmes? And all of those are critical components of this journey that we are embarking on and we will be successful.”

“But truly in terms infrastructure and other capital expenditures that we are going to have, you know we passed the PPP law which is now moving us a lot more away from government investing in these things into bringing private capital to support that,” he told George Wiafe in an interview on the PM Express Business Edition on Joy News.

He added, “And that will move a huge burden and also ensure that governance on a private sector basis is what then comes to prevail and that will bring those changes. So those are important changes that will impact the way in which capital expenditures are and reduce therefore government’s need to fund these projects.

“Expenditures are being cut to the bone. Ask from ministry to ministry and they will confirm that…” Asaaseradio.com