Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu constituency, John Abdulai Jinapor, says the governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, should have urged the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to cut down on government expenditure instead of aiding government’s frivolous spending.
According to him, the failure of the governor to exercise monetary discipline and follow its own monetary policy is responsible for the country’s ongoing economic woes.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile Saturday, he said, “Look, the World Bank document says that 850,000 people have been pushed into the poverty bracket, it’s a serious thing. Almost 1million Ghanaians have been pushed into the poverty bracket because cost of living has gone up.
“What the governor should have done, any rational being, if you talk to all the experts they’ll agree with you, he should have looked into the face of Ken Ofori Atta and said ‘look, I cannot give you this amount. And that maybe I can meet you halfway. Go and cut back on your expenditure and stick to the budget expenditure of 133 billion.’
“If Mr. Ken Ofori Atta and this government had stuck to their expenditure of 133 billion we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
He added that the current situation is unlikely to be alleviated anytime soon.
According to him, the country is still borrowing money over 30% in budgetary support.
“I’m very worried. To be frank with you, when I look at the data and where we are headed I’m very worried. We’re borrowing over 30%, do you know what it means? If you borrow 1 billion in the first quarter, in the next quarter Ghana would have to borrow 130 billion in the preceding quarter you have to borrow 130billion again and 30% of the 130billion.
“We are borrowing our way into a ditch again even with the restructured debt. I have good information from the ministry that they were struggling to pay, not the old bonds, the restructured one. And I think that, this country belongs to all of us, it doesn’t belong to only one person.
“Let’s call a spade a spade, if these exceptional financing were good why did the Bank of Ghana insist in the IMF programme it should be zero financing,” he said.
