Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Friday, May 9, 2014
It has emerged that the government of President John
Dramani Mahama is going to commence the mass retrenchment of public sector workers
beginning next year, under a killer International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out
programme for the country.
The retrenchment exercise is under the dictates of
the IMF - an idea the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has already gleefully
agreed with the Bretton Woods Institution in exchange for the killer bail-out.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has already kicked
against any IMF bail-out in any form suspecting that it could only be a Trojan horse
because of its strict conditionalities.
Sources said the proposes National Economic Forum by the Mahama administration will be used to
push through the IMF proposals to give it a legitimacy after messing up the
economy especially in the events leading to the 2012 elections.
Sources have hinted DAILY
GUIDE that the proposed National Economic Forum by the Mahama administration would be used to push through the IMF proposals to give it legitimacy, especially in the events leading to the 2012 elections.
Investigations by DAILY GUIDE revealed that a policy document titled “Economic and Financial
Policies for the Medium Term” dated April 14, 2014 is going to be the blueprint
for the exercise which is likely to spark labour agitations soon.
The IMF during its January visit to Ghana warned of
dire consequences if the country did not come out with a comprehensive report
on the way forward for salvaging the economy.
That report is ready and it is with the IMF for
review and possible implementation.
The report also mentioned about imposition of more
taxes including the possible hike of the current 17.5percent Value Added Tax
(VAT).
Home-Grown
Policies
The document which contains what the Mahama-led government
describes as ‘Home-grown Policies’ was formally submitted by the government to
the IMF during the recent IMF spring meetings in Washington DC, United States.
Report
On the issue of ‘Rationalization of government
employees’, paragraph 86 of the government’s medium term policy document lent
credence to the fact that the retrenchment exercise was imminent.
“Consistent with the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP)
objective of enhancing productivity of the public service, Government will
undertake an exercise to rationalize public sector staff to ensure right-sizing
of the public sector. This exercise may involve an option for voluntary
retirement. A current situation analysis will be undertaken in 2014 the results
of which will inform the form the rationalization will take. The actual
rationalization of staff is expected to begin 2015,” the report said.
May
Day Blackmail
On the eve of May Day celebration, NDC General
Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, warned workers that the government might have
to lay off public sector workers if salaries were increased and what was clear was
that the NDC had already taken a decision to lay off workers even before wage
negotiations were concluded.
However, the Finance Minister in his presentation of
the outlines of the government’s home-grown programme to Parliament just before
the IMF Spring Meetings conveniently failed to mention the government’s
decision to lay off workers.
Sharing
With Outsiders
The question an economic expert (who wants to remain
anonymous) asked was that “why is the government comfortable with sharing its
detailed plans for the economy with the IMF while at the same time hiding such
plans from the Ghanaian public?”
“The desire by government to keep the people in the
dark about the real state of the economy as well as its plans to address the
on-going economic crisis caused by the 2012 election over spending can be seen
by the apparent attempt by the Government of Ghana to prevent the IMF from
publishing its assessment of the economy following the Article IV Consultations
with the IMF this year,” the expert said.
Unprecedented
Move
Information available to DAILY
GUIDE however, suggests that the government has for the first time in
the country’s history, refused to grant the routine consent for the publication
of the 2014 Article IV consultations with the IMF and the expert asked “why and
what does the government have to hide?”
National Economic Forum
Based on its agreement with the
IMF, the proposed National Economic Forum scheduled for next week Tuesday at
Akosombo is ostensibly to rubber stamp the deal with the IMF and present it as
a consensus document. So that in the event of public
outcry the government will quickly say it was agreed at the Akosombo meeting.
However, in the light of the latest
information the question is what is the essence of this Forum when the
government has already decided on the programs it is going to roll out to stabilize
the situation?”
Interestingly, the government in
its policy document communicated to the IMF had indicated that it has already
adopted a medium term framework of policies and structural reforms to transform
the economy (2014-2017) as stated in paragraph 1 of the document.
Comprehensive Stabilization
“The Government of Ghana has
adopted a comprehensive stabilization and reform programme to correct the
imbalances that have occurred in recent years and lay the foundation for
transforming the structure of the economy and safeguard its positive medium
term prospects,” the document emphasized.
“If the
Government has already ‘adopted’ a set of policies and reforms to implement
between 2014 and 2017 (including the retrenchment of workers) then what is the
purpose of convening a National Economic Forum to deliberate on what to do?
“This development
suggests that the Government is being disingenuous and that the supposed
National Economic Forum is really intended to be a public relations exercise
and provide a fig leaf for the NDC government to pursue it’s already decided
policies such as the retrenchment of workers.
“Again, it is puzzling that the
government can call stakeholders to a National Economic Forum when it is
unwilling to share external assessments of the state of the economy with
stakeholders,” the expert pointed out.
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