Govt out of touch with masses — NDC

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has stated that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government has totally lost touch with the suffering masses of Ghana,  and as such was not attuned to the difficult economic realities in the country.

According to the NDC, the current reality was that the government had so far been a complete failure, having betrayed the trust of Ghanaians and that it had again resorted to lies in a desperate attempt to save its fast sinking image.

Addressing the media in the first of a series of what the party calls “Moment of Truth Series” at the NDC headquarters in Accra on Wednesday, the National Communications Director of the party, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, enumerated a list of failed promises by the government that pointed to its abysmal performance.

Promise to pay contractors

He mentioned the promise to pay all contractors within the first 100 days of the NPP’s administration, saying the government had reneged on that promise and now, GETFUND contractors were threatening demonstrations and closures of the schools they built.

“Indeed, they have for the past two years delivered $1 million to each of the 275 Constituencies in Ghana, such that today, all 275 Constituencies have received $2 million each, for the construction of KVIP toilets,” he said.

On the promise to provide a congenial atmosphere for the growth of the financial sector, Mr Gyamfi said the government had supervised the contraction of the sector from a positive growth of 22.3 per cent as at the last quarter of 2016 to a negative growth of 13.1 per cent.

Again, he said, “they have delivered on their promise of a lean government by appointing 111 Ministers and employing over 1,600 persons at the Office of Government Machinery.”

Mr Gyamfi said in 2018, out of a total of GH¢636 million allocated to the Ministry of Trade as stimulus package for industries, only an insignificant GH¢1 million had been disbursed with the year almost about to end.

He said a government that promised not to borrow had accumulated almost half of the total debt of Ghana from independence to date by GH¢50 billion.

Moving Ghana from taxation to production

On the promise to move Ghana from taxation to production, he said, the government had broken that promise by increasing VAT by five per cent under the guise of VAT conversion and introducing new taxes like luxury vehicle tax.

On the stabilisation of the cedi which was promised by the government, Mr Gyamfi noted that the local currency was currently struggling against all major foreign currencies.

He said although the government had pledged to deliver  on its promise to build one factory in every district it was appropriating existing private businesses, some of which had been in existence for over 10 years, as their 1D1F projects.

According to Mr Gyamfi, a party that promised to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth of the country had only succeeded in collapsing several businesses leading to thousands of job losses.

“Most importantly, they have delivered their free SHS promise with a half-baked and haphazardly- implemented policy that has re-introduced shift system in our Senior High Schools much to the chagrin of parents and students.,” Mr Gyamfi said.