Dr. Kobena Arthur Kennedy, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), says itοΏ½s disheartening to see President John Dramani Mahama-led government run to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout after the country had worked hard to extricate itself from the grip of the Breton Woods institution.
The NPP bigwig, who has become one of the fiery critics of his own party, said the decision by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to turn to the Breton Woods institution hurts more because Ghana now produces oil.
οΏ½If we were doing so well just before we struck the oil, why are we floundering once again, despite having oil?οΏ½ Dr. Arthur Kennedy wondered in a statement issued from his Irmo base in South Carolina, United States, yesterday.
οΏ½Unfortunately, we have been here before. The IMF was around just before the Busia government was toppled by the οΏ½Yentua Acheampong government.οΏ½ It was around just before Rawlings came again, on the strength of οΏ½corruption and economic mismanagement.οΏ½ It assisted the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime and hailed Ghana as an οΏ½economic miracle.οΏ½ It assisted NDC-1 and the Kufuor administrations.
οΏ½Indeed, with the latter, we went on to issue the first Eurobond by an African country after South Africa. With each of these bailouts and the hailing of οΏ½successes and miracles,οΏ½ reasonable people had assumed that we had turned the economic corner for good οΏ½ only to find ourselves in the same soup again. This particular one hurts, especially because we have oil,οΏ½ he stated.
According to Dr. Arthur Kennedy, with the repeated cycles of bailing out by the IMF, there was the need to seek οΏ½some hard questionsοΏ½ and find lasting solutions to such problems.
οΏ½First, why do we keep needing help from the IMF? Second, is this present request for help meant to get more loans or to get policy advice οΏ½ otherwise known as οΏ½apoοΏ½ or knowledge? If public sector wages are this high, was οΏ½Single SpineοΏ½ a mistake?οΏ½ he queried.
He added, οΏ½Do our governments find it hard to accept advice from the opposition? Are we going to the IMF to listen to the same advice that has been offered by Bawumia, Akoto-Osei and others? If that is the case, why is the opposition applauding the request to the IMF instead of challenging the government to do what it must do?οΏ½
He held that if the request to the IMF was for financial help, then Ghanaians reserved the right to ask what had happened to all the monies that had been borrowed since the NDC returned to power in 2009.
οΏ½Should we have been more welcoming of Archbishop Duncan WilliamsοΏ½ offer of prayers? While all these are important questions, the biggest question is whether we are indeed here because of mismanagement and/or corruption,οΏ½ he added.
The renowned Economist magazine published that οΏ½Recently, Ghana has been living beyond its means. Public debt is rising rapidly and now tops 50% of GDP in official figures. Fitch, a ratings agency, puts it at even higher οΏ½ 62%, taking into account a revaluation of its foreign-denominated debt. The main cause is a yawning fiscal deficit which stood at 10.1% in 2013.οΏ½
Confusing The Public
The NDC government has been giving conflicting signals about the proposed deal with the IMF.
President Mahama, before emplaning to the United States to attend the special African/American LeadersοΏ½ Summit, was reported to have instructed his economic team to start the processes that would lead to a bailout from the IMF οΏ½ a move the Fund has even confirmed.
In another breadth, he and his cronies claim that their (so-called) οΏ½homegrown policiesοΏ½ needed some approval by the IMF for the international community to have some confidence in governmentοΏ½s economic measures.
Source: William Yaw Owusu/Daily Guide
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