Ofori-Atta’s Window Dressing Not Sufficient To Restore Broken Economy …Terkper

Former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, has assessed the measures that Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has unveiled as part of the government’s roadmap to rejuvenating Ghana’s messed up the economy as only good enough to scratch the surface.

In an interview, Mr. Terkper who was famous for the so-called “smart borrowing” economic measures when he was in charge of the exchequer under former President Mahama said Ofori-Atta’s plan, including cutting down on the government’s acquisition of new vehicles by 50% do not go deep enough to benefit the short term.

“I do not think we have addressed sufficiently the short-term problems that we have,” he told Accra-based TV 3.

Mr. Terkper points out that recurrent expenditures including amortization and compensation remain the sources of the haemorrhage on the public purse and yet Ofori-Atta’s measures do not touch them at all.

“First of all, the budget is tight, the revenue is covering two items and is still not enough – compensation and interest. That means that every single item including parts of the interest and compensation on wages is being financed from loans,” Terkper diagnosed the problem.

“That includes recurrent expenditure, it includes capital expenditure, it includes arrears which we have just been told is about 5 percent of GDP from an authoritative source that is the World Bank, and it includes repayment of past loans that we have taken,” he said.

Last Thursday, March 24, 2022, Ofori-Atta came to announce measures that the Akufo-Addo cabinet managed to put together at a retreat at the Peduase Lodge to try to rescue the economy after borrowing the country into a conundrum.

“With immediate effect, Government has imposed a complete moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles for the rest of the year. This will affect all new orders, especially 4-wheel drives. We will ensure that the overall effect is to reduce total vehicle purchases by the public sector by at least 50 percent for the period,” he said.

“Again, with immediate effect Government has imposed a moratorium on all foreign travels, except pre-approved critical/statutory travels; Government will conclude ongoing measures to eliminate “ghost” workers from the Government payroll by the end of December 2022;

But experts have pointed out that what goes to t5he heart of the economic woes the government has plunged the country into is the debt conundrum and also the fact that the largest part of the budget services recurrent budget.