The ratings of the Mahama administration continue to dwindle daily owing to the current harsh economic conditions in the country.
The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) which scored the Mahama administration an abysmal 20 percent, said the “Mahama-NDC administration has lost touch with the needs of the people and may be riding in an artificial palanquin.”
This was after Finance Minister Seth Terpker presented a supplementary budget to Parliament.
The PPP said “the supplementary budget presented by the Finance Minister on Monday failed to address the many challenges bedevilling the Ghanaian business community.”
This was contained in a statement signed by the party’s Director of Communications, Paa Kow Ackon in which he punched holes into the government’s budget.
“The PPP wants to say it loud to Ghanaians that Mr. Seth Terkper’s supplementary budget was highly skewed and failed to address the key questions boggling the minds of investors, businesses, international organisations and consumers,” the statement disclosed.
“The submission of the Finance Minister best describes the attitude of a student who has no answers to 8 out of 10 questions expected to be answered in an examination but chooses to spend the entire examination period in answering the two questions that he is most conversant with. Obviously, that student is bound to fail or has failed in advance, assuming all questions are awarded equal marks.”
Issues
On the issue of debt accumulation, which according to the Finance Minister has declined even though GDP growth has been going down for the past four years, the PPP said “we do not see this as an achievement given that the said government debt-to-GDP ratio was fuelled by the unbridled borrowing by government, non-existent fiscal policies to stabilise the cedi and stimulate economic activity, further tightening of the domestic economy with the basic excuse of fiscal consolidation under an IMF programme and overburdening of the private sector with multiple taxes.”
Aside that, the party said “repetition of the growth rate in agriculture by some 2.8 percent during the first quarter of 2016, which is already published by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in June 2016 without any valuable additions, indicates the little effort the Minister puts into this supplementary budget.
“We believe it would have been more prudent and informative for the Finance Minister to touch on the rise in food prices on the domestic market and the specific initiatives the government has put in place to minimise the present high cost of living,” Papa Kow Ackon added.
According to him, “We were expecting government to indicate the new strategies it hopes to implement to increase performance in the agriculture sector and also reduce food shortages.”
He wondered why government had failed to fulfil its promise to procure 50 tractors with components under the Agricultural Mechanisation Services Enterprise Centres (AMSECs) before the end of the 2016 fiscal year.
Worry
Touching on the power crisis, also known as dumsor, the PPP indicated that “there is no individual who is not affected by the worsening power crisis and the adamant position of government to present a load shedding timetable.
“Instead of wasting precious time to outline the many energy infrastructure projects which have not solved the “dumsor” problem, it will have been more prudent to acknowledge the power crisis, sympathise with residents and clearly state the timelines to curtail this menace forever,” it insisted.
The party said “we find this supplementary budget and the demand for an additional GH¢1.88 billion preposterous and should not warrant any approval by Parliament.
“There is a huge possibility of government using part of this supplementary budget to support the campaign activities of President Mahama and the NDC.”
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