Economy not doing well — Minority
Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) have indicated that the country's economy is not doing well, contrary to the position of the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper.
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Reacting to the government's request to the House to approve GH¢1,888,203,387 as supplementary estimates for the 2016 financial year, the MPs said the lives of Ghanaians were not being changed for the better.
They said Mr Terkper's statement was mere political talk, as it did not reflect the true state of the economy.
In separate interviews, the MP for Kwadaso, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto; the MP for Efutu, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, and the MP for Obuasi West, Mr Kwaku Kwarteng, said the reasons for the request for additional funding were not justifiable.
They said the government's excess borrowing was not good for the health of the economy.
Besides, the rate of inflation kept rising, which had increased the cost of goods and services.
The Minority MPs said the cost of executing government projects was very high.
'Dumsor ignored'
The Minority MPs said the Finance Minister did not focus on the power challenge and rising inflation, which were the key issues affecting Ghanaians.
They said the power challenge was caused by the government's failure to allocate the needed funds to buy oil to power the power plants.
They said the issue of lack of oil should not be shifted to the Nigeria Gas (N-Gas).
GDP growth
“The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate recorded in 2015 and the one projected for the end of this year were all below what the country was recording even without oil,” they said.
That, they argued, demonstrated that the government was not employing the best macro and microeconomic policies to grow the economy and improve the living standards of Ghanaians.
The Minority MPs accused the government of not investing enough in the agricultural sector, a development which has slowed down the growth of that important sector of the economy.
K.T. Hammond on ‘dumsor’
The MP for Adansi Asokwa, Mr K.T. Hammond, accused the government of not telling Ghanaians the truth about the power challenge facing the country.
He also demanded to know what was happening to the Floating Production Storage and Offloading ((FPSO) vessel, the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, saying that "they should tell us".
He said the government had eaten the “flesh and the bones”.
Mr Hammond said crude oil was now $40 plus but the government could not buy it.
He said the power challenge was not about N-Gas, as the government wanted Ghanaians to believe.
Rather, he said, the difficulty was due to the government's inability to make available adequate funds to buy crude oil to power the plants.
"The problem is the government's refusal to expend money for the purpose of running the plants," he said.
Mr Hammond said the government did not care because it believed that Ghanaians had short memories and so the NDC would get their votes in the elections.