Issah Alhassa
18 November 2009
Kumasi — THE FORMER Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Hon. Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, has cast a great deal of aspersions over the efficiency and viability of the government's fiscal policy for the year 2010, ahead of its presentation in Parliament today.
Hon. Dr. Akoto says he is less upbeat about the ability of the budget to address the nation's economic conundrums and inspire positive growth in the face of mediocre monetary policies being implemented by the current government.
"I don't expect anything new on Wednesday - in fact, the 2010 budget is not likely to make any meaningful impact on the economy, I am not looking forward to any magic from the government because it would basically be an old wine packaged in new bottle," he noted.
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor would storm the august house this morning to present the government's monetary policy for the 2010 fiscal year, and already tongues are wagging over whether the government can bring smiles on the faces of numerous Ghanaians, in the heat of the harsh economic conditions.
But even before Dr.Duffuor faces Parliament on Wednesday, his colleague on the other side of the political divide is pessimistic about the feasibility of the budget.
Answering questions on his expectations on Wednesday, ahead of the presentation of the 2010 Budget statement by the Finance Minister in an interview with The Chronicle, the ex-Finance Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, said he would be expecting a tighter budget which would only end up aggravating the woes of Ghanaians, than what was even contained in the 2009 budget. "In fact, I pity my friend Duffuor, I do not envy him a bit, he is in a very tight corner and there is little he can do," he stated.
Dr. Akoto further asserted that the government's total reliance on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), coupled with its inability to resort to other means of generating funds meant that the government has little means of getting money to embark on expenditure.
He noted that with the IMF/World Bank conditionalities and the reduction of donor inflows since the beginning of the year, Ghanaians cannot find any solace in the government's budget statement.
Dr. Akoto further noted - "already the four year reduction programme has run into difficulties, the government has not been able to fulfil all the conditionalities contained in the $300 million World Bank/IMF loan which continues to hang on our neck like an albatross, revenue has gone down and there is less donor inflow since the beginning of the year, so what positive message has Dr. Duffuor got to tell us?", he questioned.
The former Minister anticipated that due to the delay in the arrival of the $150 million World Bank loan, which he attributed to the failure on the part of the government to present the Freedom of Information Bill to parliament for passage, the government has been forced to cut down expenditure, adding that he would not be surprised if the government decides to postpone wage increases to next year."
"Now, do you wonder why a whole government could not raise just $80 million dollars for the importation of crude into the country, why must a government worth its sort rely on a private entity just to secure a letter of credit to import crude oil," he queried, reiterating that the problems were as result of the $300 million loan agreement with the World Bank.
He therefore pledged that he and his minority colleagues in Parliament would critically assess the statement after its presentation.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Ghanaian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
