Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Saturday, May 09, 2015
The Christian Council
and the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference have expressed grave concern about
the happenings in the country especially the management of the economy.
“We have received
with surprise news that Ghana faces a real and serious risk of falling into the
league of High Debt Distress Countries (HDDC) from the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) on the basis of Ghana’s excessive borrowing and indebtedness which
is estimated to be about GHC76 billion as at December last year,” they said.
This was contained in
a joint statement issued in Accra and jointly signed by Most Rev. Joseph
Osei-Bonsu - President, Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference and Rt. Rev. Prof.
Emmanuel K. Martey - Chairman, Christian Council of Ghana following their 2015
Annual Joint Meeting.
The clergy said “we
believe this is a cause for worry considering the fact that we came out of HIPC
not too long ago. We call on the Government to do all it can to save the
economy of our country from its current unstable and precarious state.”
Where is Senchi Consensus?
According to them, there
was the need “to revisit both the spirit and agenda of the Senchi Consensus
which made concrete proposals to solve Ghana’s economic woes,” asking “we wish
to know whether it has been abandoned due to the IMF bailout package or it has
been incorporated into it.”
They prayed that the
government “will listen to the calls of individuals and groups including
religious bodies for the development of a long-term National Development Plan
for our country, and initiate the process to develop one that will be respected
and implemented by successive governments.”
NHIS collapsing
The clergy said that
they had followed “with worry and anxiety” all the happenings about the
National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and stated that “we are very concerned
about the sustainability of the scheme if the current difficulties with it are
not resolved expeditiously.”
“The continuous and
repeated failure to reimburse facilities on time, the incessant threats of
service withdrawal by service providers, among others, continue to plague the scheme.
Our health facilities are collapsing under the scheme and the frustration of
both staff and patients is unbearable.”
“We invite the government
as a matter of urgency to come out to inform the citizenry about the true state
of the Scheme and give us a clear roadmap for its sustainability or otherwise.
We will equally appreciate a broad stakeholder consultation on the issue and we
are ready to lead the process. Our institutions pioneered health insurance
schemes in the country before it was adopted as a national policy,” they said.
Dumsor
dynamics
They said in spite of the government’s promises and
actions to solve the electricity there had not been any improvement for the
past three years.
“We vehemently condemn the lack of serious practical
short-term solutions to the crisis. Things are really hard for the productivity
sector and waiting for too long will not do us any good,” they said.
Partnership in Education
The clergy reiterated
the church’s readiness to strengthen the government-church partnership in
providing quality education in schools saying “unfortunately, the absence of
any document to guide this partnership over the years has led to the gradual
and systematic weakening of our stake in education delivery, evident in the
lack of collaboration with our Educational Managers, the withdrawal of their
stipends and the general frustration of their work by some officials of the
Ghana Education Service.”
“We think that it is
truly unfair and objectionable to continue to ignore religious and other bodies
who are major stakeholders in education service delivery in Ghana.”
Botched DA
and 2016 Elections
They sought to know
what plans were being put in place for the suspended District Assembly
elections as well as the road map for Ghana’s General Elections in 2016 saying
“we propose that the Electoral Commission should begin in earnest the process
of engagement with all stakeholders on the way forward for these elections.”
“Pertinent issues
such as the Voters’ Register, Biometric verification, creation of
constituencies, among others, need to be addressed now. Related critical issues
include the needed reforms to Ghana’s electoral system as per the various
recommendations and the early and transparent appointment of a new Chairman of
the Electoral Commission.”
The clergy also touched
on the constitutional review and said the process “appeared stalled” and also expressed
their unhappiness about the funding arrangements made for the oversight
responsibility of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) which
they said had remained a challenge for some time.
They also condemned
the persistent persecution of Christians worldwide and also appeal to the youth
not to embark on perilous journeys to seek greener pastures in Europe.
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