Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Thursday, February 25, 2016
New Patriotic Party
(NPP) vice presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has blasted the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration
for plunging the country into huge debt despite the enormous resources
available to it.
Dr Bawumia, an astute
economist, insisted that the Mahama government had borrowed $37 billion out of which it could account for only $7
billion under its so-called massive infrastructural projects.
“What is clear to me (and confirms my long
held suspicion) is that members of this government, handed the mandate to
manage our destinies as a nation, do not read,” the NPP vice presidential
candidate stated in reaction to a statement issued yesterday by government to
counter his earlier analysis on the heavy debt burden inflicted on the country
by the NDC administration.
So far, the Bank of
Ghana (BoG) and the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, are running away from the
current debt position of the country as at December 2015, as they claim that
they are still doing reconciliation two months after the end of the year.
Both the Finance
Minister and BoG Governor Kofi Wampah are relying on a September figure of GH¢92
billion. With government contracting GH¢6 billion in loans monthly through the
capital market, it is believed that the total debt is currently hovering around
GH¢110 billion - as government continues to borrow to service interest on
debts.
Dr. Bawumia stated, “If
you sum the cost of all the loan financed projects listed in the green book,
including those with artistic impressions, it is less than $7 billion.
Meanwhile, the government has borrowed the equivalent of $37 billion, so where
is the rest of the money?”
Travesty Of Justice
“I will
repeat again that it is in fact a travesty that Ghana before the discovery of
oil was spending a higher proportion of its income on infrastructure investment
than after the discovery of oil and the massive increase in the debt stock,” Dr.
Bawumia insisted.
The
renowned economist, at the National Financial Literacy and Investment Summit
organised by the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) at the
University for Development Studies, Wa Campus, under the theme: “The Role of
Financial Discipline and Investment in National Development,” last weekend exposed
the NDC government’s propaganda while highlighting the massive mismanagement of
the economy under President John Mahama.
NDC Response
However, a statement
signed by Communications Minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah yesterday chided Dr.
Bawumia for his analysis, describing it as ‘false’ and ‘misleading.’
“It is instructive that
after years of living in denial that these projects don’t exist, he has finally
acknowledged their existence except that he wants to tread down the path of
discrediting them for partisan gain,” the minister underscored in the
statement.
The government said, “Dr.
Bawumia’s latest untruths are only a last-gasp effort to create doubts about
the unprecedented investments made in all spheres of our national life by
President John Dramani Mahama’s Government. It is borne out of a morbid fear
that the overwhelming evidence provided in the 210-page book, shatters the many
unsustainable falsehoods churned out by him, the NPP and their allies about the
performance of President Mahama.”
The NDC government also
accused Dr. Bawumia of making claims without source and described it as “false
and a desperate attempt to find basis for the flawed conclusions he churned out
at the event.”
You don’t Read!
An unperturbed
Dr. Bawumia hit back strongly yesterday, saying government officials, including
ministers, do not read.
“Worse
of all, as I said on 14th February, 2015, at a forum at the University for
Development Studies, what is most unfortunate about this whole episode is the
fact that the government doesn’t even seem to know how much it has borrowed.
“I
have on several occasions tried to educate the government on what the true
value of their borrowing is but try as I do, it is clear the government is
committed to either not reading and understanding the extent of their reckless
borrowing or is only following their usual path of deceit and propaganda.”
The
NPP stalwart said, “Amazingly, after adding some GH¢20 billion to the debt
stock in 2015 alone, the government still wants to insist that the value of
borrowing they have done, in dollar terms, has actually decreased. This exposes
the deception in the method the government is applying on our debt stock, in
attempt to hide the real value of monies that have accrued to them.”
Falsehood
Dr.
Bawumia also accused the government of lying in the release by Dr. Omane Boamah
about capital expenditure during the NPP administration (2001-2008), saying “I
doubt the Finance Ministry handed these figures to the Minister (Omane Boamah),
but whatever be the case, it exposes the level of incompetent and deceitful
governance we have today.
“All they
have done is to repeat the same claims which have been discredited. For me, the
people of Ghana remain the best judges on the issue of whether they have had
their due from this government, considering the unprecedented resources and
opportunities they have had since they won power.”
Judgment Day
He articulated,
“After having more than 10 times the resources of the NPP through unbridled
borrowing, astronomic increases in tax rates and favourable external conditions
(which they did nothing to precipitate), the people of Ghana will judge if such
huge resources have been invested in their lives.
“I remain convinced that the people of Ghana will judge
and judge well. This conviction is strengthened on a daily basis as I go round
the country and interact with the people of Ghana.”
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