Bawumia’s take on economy flawed - Dr Thompson
The Economic Advisor to the President, Dr Nii Moi Thompson, has stated that the suggestion by Dr Mahamadu Bawumia that the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) did not contribute to the current economic challenges was mischievous.
He described Dr Bawumia’s recent lecture on Ghana’s current economic situation as flawed and selective, suggesting that in the final analysis, Dr Bawumia ended up with a shallow picture of what he sought to put out.
Bawumia’s lecture
The running mate to the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 elections last Wednesday delivered a lecture on the state of Ghana’s economy at the Central University College’s Distinguished Speakers series.
His lecture touched on a wide range of issues, including the depreciating local currency, fiscal development and the public debt stock.
Selective analysis
Responding to Dr Bawumia’s lecture in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, Dr Thompson questioned Dr Bawumia’s honesty and wondered why he left the arrears bit of the SSPP and rather dwelt on current obligations which were one of the key components of the SSPP.
He pointed out that Dr Bawumia also confused the wage bill with the compensation bill.
Dr Thompson submitted that a former Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance in the Kufuor administration, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, appeared to have a better appreciation of the issues, as he (Dr Akoto Osei) had acknowledged the government’s position on the causes of the economic difficulties.
Depreciation of the cedi
Dr Thompson stated that Dr Bawumia’s analysis on the depreciation of the local currency was also selectively done, as he sought to look at the exchange rate in early 2000 and 2007 and suddenly “jumped” to 2010.
He questioned why the former deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana conveniently left out the ensuing years in his analysis, adding that during the devaluation of the currency in 2007, it lost almost one quarter of its value for 18 months.
Dr Thompson expressed the belief that for Dr Bawumia to deliberately leave out those statistical facts in his analysis was questionable.
Dr Bawumia, in his lecture, had said the government had pontificated that the SSPP and the dollarisation of the economy were accountable for the economic challenges but he disagreed with that assertion, arguing that the economic challenges were the result of weak economic fundamentals and policy choices of the government, a position Dr Thompson contested.
Recommendations
Touching on the recommendations made by Dr Bawumia, the economic advisor to the President stated that those recommendations were not new, as the government was already implementing them.
He said the issue about the Fiscal Responsibility Act Dr Bawumia mentioned was not new, since it was talked about during the time of the late Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, then Finance Minister in the erstwhile NPP administration.
Dr Thompson asked why the NPP government failed to implement the Fiscal Responsibility Act if, indeed, the government recognised it as a good initiative.
He indicated that a biometric technology was being employed to clean the payroll system, but expressed concern that in the quest to remain on the payroll, some public sector workers were sabotaging the system by reducing their ages, among other fraudulent activities.
Dr Bawumia, in his recommendations, had called on the government to admit that the economy was in crisis and stop denying the obvious.
He also asked the government to resist the temptation to make new promises which had the tendency to undermine the economic fundamentals.
Productivity
According to Dr Thompson, the government is working very hard to increase productivity in the public sector.
He explained that a team had been tasked to identify major productive areas and link them with pay and that the team had completed its work and presented its report to the President for the necessary action.
He observed that the government had not lost sight of the issue of public sector reforms which were considered critical for increased productivity.
Writer’s email: sebastian.syme@graphic.com.gh
