NPP damns govt’s economic management in 2013
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has chastised the government for worsening the lives of Ghanaians because of what it described as its record of poor economic management in 2013.
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At a press briefing dubbed, ‘2013 in retrospect ’ in Accra Wednesday, the party cast doubt on the rosy picture painted by the government about Ghana’s economy in 2013.
Three leading members of the NPP, who presented the party’s view on the economy and performance of the government in 2013, in the main, said the President Mahama-led government, which marked its one year anniversary on January 7, 2014, had not performed as brilliantly as Ghanaians had been told.
They were Nana Akomea, a former Communications Director of the party, Dr Anthony Akoto-Osei, the Minority Spokesperson on Finance, and Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, a former Member of Parliament for Asokwa.
Power Outages and borrowing
Presenting a statement titled, “The economy in 2013... How did we fare” on behalf of the party, Dr Akoto-Osei said Ghanaians experienced the worst episodes of frequent power outages in 2013.
As consumers and businesses were trying to adjust to the severe energy crisis, the government, through the Public Utility Regulatory Commission, increased electricity and water tariffs, he said.
On public debt, Dr Akoto-Osei criticised the government for the high domestic borrowing, which he said had resulted in rising interest payments on the debt stock.
In 2013, he said, the government borrowed at least GH¢1.2 billion “almost every month from domestic sources. By the end of 2013, our total debt stock stood at over $23 billion, rising significantly from only $8 billion in 2008.”
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Plight of Public workers
Public sector workers, according to Dr Akoto-Osei, could not keep up with inflation which was in double digits of about 13.2 per cent, while workers received a salary increase of only 10 per cent.
As a result of the performance of the economy, he said “the average Ghanaian found life very difficult in 2013” as parents had a hard time paying school fees, individuals and businesses struggled to pay higher utility bills and workers experienced salary arrears and were threatened with a freeze on wages.
The recent increase in VAT, electricity tariffs, the announcement by the National Petroleum Authority of the implementation of its automatic adjustment formula for petroleum products this year and the increases in fees and levies by service providers were indications of hardship in 2014, he said.
“Unless the government intends to propose other policy interventions in the course of the year, then on the basis of the last year poor performance, we predict that the year 2014 is likely to bring as many challenges to the average Ghanaian as the year 2013 did,” he said.
Merchant Bank deal
On the Merchant Bank deal, Nana Akomea said the main area of concern was the issue of conflict of interest as there appeared to be political interference in the commercial operations of the bank.
He alleged that that was the result of the involvement of the President and some personalities around him.
Nana Akomea said the precedent set in the handling of the matter was a “dangerous one for the country.”
Mr Jumah, who touched on allegations of corruption, said the government must tackle corruption earnestly and sincerely and called for the looting of state resources and wastage of the taxpayer’s money to cease.