Minority
calls on Finance Minister to be consistent
Accra, Sept 2, GNA - The New Patriotic
Party (NPP), main Minority in Parliament, on Wednesday
accused Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and
Economic Planning, of being untruthful and inconsistent
in his presentations on the Ghanaian economy.
Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Minority leader, at a press
conference in Accra on Wednesday said: “He has been
consistently providing falsehoods and half-truths when
it suits him. He is an honourable man and we want to
advise him to be honourable about the information he
gives.”
The Minority leader, who was reacting to government’s
supplementary budget recently presented to Parliament by
the Minister, said the financial statement was not only
misleading but it was creating the impression that the
NPP administration performed badly, regarding the
country’s economy.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the use of words such as
“run-down economy and poor economic managements” which
the Minister used in both his March and Mid-year review
and supplementary budgets presentations demonstrated
that the Minister had a hidden agenda against the NPP
administration, particularly when he was the Governor of
Bank of Ghana at the time.
The Minority leader wondered why the Minister should
continue hyping the fact that the NPP administration
run-down the economy when all indications were clear
that the NPP performed better in terms of head-to-head.
He said “In 2000, when the NDC government was leaving
office, the total debt to GDP ratio stood at 186
percent, meaning that we needed almost two times our
national income to pay off all our debts, but in 2008
when the NPP government was about to leave office, the
total debt to GDP ratio stood at only 46 percent meaning
we needed less than one-half of our income to pay off
all our debts”.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said in 2000, real terms economic
growth was 3.7 percent, but it rose to 7.3 percent as at
the time the NPP was leaving office while per capita
income in 2000 stood at $290 as compared $720 as at the
time NPP government was leaving office.
The Minority leader who is also the Member of Parliament
for Suame , said the Minister was being hypocritical by
presenting the true picture of the economy to IMF and
World Bank and yet presented a different picture to the
Parliament and to all Ghanaians.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said “The question Ghanaians want
the Minister to answer is which information about the
state of the economy is correct; the one he
characterizes as ‘run-down’ or the one he describes in
his June 2009 letter to the IMF? Clearly, we know he
cannot lie to the IMF, because the sanctions will be
most severe as occurred in 2001, when Ghana was made to
pay back almost $34 million dollars as a result of NDC
government’s misreporting on our external debt in 2000”.
He said NDC government’s claim that it had put the
economy back on track was not convincing as arrears
amounting to GHC 139.2 million was at hand with GHC 10
million of the District Assemblies Common fund in
arrears and GHC 25.5 in arrears for Ghana Education
Trust Fund (GETfund).
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, called on the Minister to present
issues as they were and stop using political language in
his presentations as such political language and
falsehoods could create negative impact on the country.
GNA
