Demonstrate openness, transparency in IMF negotiation - Minority Chief Whip urges govt
The Minority Chief Whip, Governs Kwame Agbodza, has urged the government to demonstrate openness and transparency in the ongoing negotiation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to enjoy the “buy-in” of all Ghanaians.
He said the current opaque way the Vice President and the Minister of Finance were handling the negotiation with the IMF had only kept many Ghanaians in the dark, leaving them unaware of what was going on.
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“As we speak, we have a situation where Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Ken Ofori-Atta are the only ones who know what they are negotiating. All they want is to decide that Ghanaians pay a certain money from their private sources to save them as part of debt restructuring which people are pushing against heavily,” he said.
Addressing the media on Ghana’s negotiation with the IMF at Parliament House, Mr Agbodza said currently, there were other significant parts of the negotiation that was not known to Ghanaians, creating “a huge anxiety”.
“I encourage them to seek help as there are people within and outside the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who can help, failure of which Ghanaians must call Dr Bawumia and Ken Ofori-Atta to order as we cannot continue to wait on them to let us know what is going on as and when they like”, he said.
Suspension of capital projects
Mr Agboza, who is the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Adaklu “claimed that he was aware of a series of meetings that had taken place involving “closed group of NPP people close to the President Akufo-Addo, in which a decision had allegedly been made to suspend or cancel about 60 capital projects across the country.
That, he said, was in spite of the fact that the government had already paid some of the developers or contractors between 15 and 20 per cent mobilisation.
Mr Agbodza, who is also the Ranking Member on the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament, mentioned some of the projects to include the Shama Interchange, La General Hospital, and the road between Tema roundabout, Akosombo and the Adomi Bridge.
“These are foreign companies that have taken the mobilisation and are sitting in their offices because the government is unable to tell them to go ahead because the Finance Minister said all these projects must be suspended.
“So, we are probably losing value because they have taken money in terms of mobilisation and they have set up camp and they are in the office drinking tea but you cannot blame them,” he said.
Stop job losses
“This lack of understanding creates big anxiety as there are financiers, developers, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and even ordinary workers working with these entities who are currently unsure whether they are going to lose their work permanently,” he said.
The MP alleged that some of the foreign companies had already started laying off workers.
“I encourage them to seek help as there are people within and outside the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who can help, failure of which Ghanaians must call Dr Bawumia and Ken Ofori-Atta to order as we cannot continue to wait on them to let us know what is going on as and when they like”.
