[ 2014-09-17 ]

Minister asks: Why is minority panicking over IMF discussion
Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Kweku
Rickets-Hagan is wondering why the minority in
Parliament have started painting a gloomy picture
of government's discussion with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) even before it takes place.

Reacting to Minority's claim that going to the IMF
will not inure to the benefit of Ghanaians, the
former Deputy Finance Minister said “going for
an IMF program is good for the economy because it
will also give us credibility on the international
market”.

According to him, government is going to the
discussion table with its own agenda on the
table.

The MP for Cape Coast South further debunked the
assertion that the IMF discussion could result in
job cuts explaining that government is only
seeking the Fund's assistance to embellish its own
home grown policies which are already yielding
good results.

“Government's own home grown policy has brought
down the wage bill from 70% to 57% of tax revenue
with the aim of further bringing it down to about
35%”.

Mr. Ricketts-Hagan also emphasized that pruning
the wage bill does not necessarily result in job
cuts as other measures being taken to control
spending such as the biometric registration of
people on government's payroll have revealed over
2500 ghost names which amounts to over GH¢400
million loss to government.

He also described as flawed; argument by Dr
Anthony Akoto Osei and Osei Assibey of the
Minority that talks with IMF could affect the
release of the second compact of the Millennium
Challenge Account, explaining that government of
Ghana was implementing the first compact of the
MCA at the same period it was negotiating the
Chinese CDB loan and there was no problem.

Recounting some programs of the IMF with
governments over the years, the Deputy Minister
said Ghana started the Economic Recovery Program
and the Structural Adjustment Program in the early
90s with the IMF; it also implemented the HIPC
Program under the NPP with the IMF as well as the
Extended Credit Facility between 2009 and 2012
under late President John Mills.

He further added that restructuring of the
Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the
Northern Electricity Company of Ghana (NEDCO) to
ensure their efficiency are nothing different from
government's own home grown policies to be on the
discussion table with the IMF.

Source - Mckyntosh Essuman Aidoo

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