IMF trusts govt data - Omane Boamah declares

The government has called on Ghanaians to disregard Dr Mahamudu Bawumia's assertion that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) programme, Ghana is about to enter into is a potential disaster for the nation.

According to the Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, the IMF had superior analytical tools than Dr Bawumia, and would, therefore, not sacrifice its credibility because of Ghana. 

Reacting to a lecture the running mate to the 2016 NPP presidential candidate delivered at the Central University College last Tuesday in an interview yesterday, Dr Omane Boamah, who is also the acting presidential spokesperson, said so far the IMF had done everything to establish the fact that the nation stood to benefit from the programme.

He said initially the fund expressed some disagreement with the figures the government presented, one of which was the national debt because they thought the debts of state-owned enterprises should be included, which was not the practice elsewhere.

“Eventually the fund concluded that the negotiations were successful. 

"With successful negotiations one would wonder Dr Bawumia and the NPP's motive in trying to disrupt a negotiation that has been deemed to be successful," he said.

Significantly, he said, during the negotiations, the IMF met the parliamentarians, which included the NPP MPs, adding that Dr Bawumia’s posture clearly indicated that he had an agenda to scuttle the strides the government was making.

He said it was not fair to say that the IMF programme was bringing only $900 million to the nation.

He also had issues with Dr Bawumia's position that the figures the government based its IMF negotiations on were flawed.

He said Ghana like other nations did not take inflation figures from the central bank, pointing out that the body clothed with the mandate to provide such figures in the country was the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).

"So the Ghana Statistical Service has put up their figures and you cannot contest their methodology. You don't analyse that to say that the GSS figures are flawed,” he stated.

Dr Omane Boamah said the fact that the statistical department of the Ministry of Agriculture had also put up some figures that contradicted that of the GSS did not mean that GSS figures were wrong.

Power

He also tore apart arguments by Dr Bawumia that the power problem was as a result of the government's inability to provide funds to secure fuel to power the thermal plants.

Arguing that hydroelectric dams did not need gas or light crude to power them, the minister said everyone in the country was aware of the water level of the Akosombo Dam and also the mechanical faults with some of the thermal plants.

"And so you may want to pardon him because he may not have been properly briefed," he said.

African Development Bank

On Dr Bawumia's assertion that Ghana had failed to honour its financial obligations to the African Development Bank     (AfDB), Dr Omane Boamah said "Dr Bawumia must go back to his source at the AfDB and cross-check his facts”.

"It is unfortunate particularly as he has had some relationship with the AfDB and I am very sure he will be able to tell Ghanaians what the facts are when he cross-checks," he said.

He flayed Dr Bawumia for failing to source the graphs he used in the presentation at such an academic environment.

Loans secured by government

Dr Omane Boamah said the President was focused and would judiciously use all the loans the nation was securing for the benefit of the country.

Mentioning a catalogue of infrastructure projects in the areas of education, communications, health, water and roads, he said the promises that the government had made to the people of Ghana would be fulfilled to the displeasure of Dr Bawumia and the NPP.

Political propaganda

He accused Dr Bawumia of allowing political propaganda to destroy a nice opportunity to prove his academic credentials at the lecture.

"A simple exercise that could have been an academic and nation-building exercise was laced with a lot of partisan propaganda and the value was completely lost and now people are trying to find out exactly what he meant," the minister said.