The Minority Group in Parliament has described the state of the Ghanaian economy as "horrifying" and said the high cost of living is exacting a toll on Ghanaians and making life unbearable.
It said the economic fundamentals were "hopeless" and called on all Ghanaians to help expose the impropriety, malfeasance and incompetence that had characterised the John Mahama administration.
Addressing a press conference at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Headquarters Monday, the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said the criticism of the government was being done to reform it and was not out of the "prettiness of politics and the small mindedness of doomsayers or a wish for the failure of any action or policy intended to lift Ghana up”.
The three-hour press conference focused on almost all sectors of the Ghananain economy.
The economy
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said contrary to statements made by the President to the effect that the economy was sound, all was not well.
Providing historical figures, he said in 2000, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) inherited by President Kufuor, was 3.7 per cent while in 2001, it grew by 4.5 per cent. In 2002, it grew by 4.5 per cent; rising to 5.2 per cent in 2003 and to 5.6 per cent in 2004. It rose to 5.9 percent in 2005; 6.4 per cent in 2006; 6.3 per cent in 2007 and to 8.4 per cent in 2008. All that, he said, was without the benefit of crude oil exports.
Comparing that with the Mahama administration's figures, he said in 2009, the economy slackened from the 2008 level of 8.4 per cent to 4.0 per cent. It rose to 5.9 per cent in 2010 and 14.4 per cent in 2011 with about seven per cent due to oil. In comparable with non-oil growth rate, the economy really shrank to about 7.4 per cent in 2011 and even with oil shrank further to 7.1 per cent in 2012.
In 2013, he said, the estimated 7.4 GDP growth rate was being revised downwards further and the non-oil sector shrank even more to 5.8 per cent "and we expect it to shrink again in 2014."
"If the chequered, non-steady, shrinking economic growth rates are what the President referred to as sound economic fundamentals, then we wonder where he learnt this bogus economic analysis from since he characterised this section of his state of the nation address as a lesson in economics," he said.
With regard to the cedi, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said it was now selling at Ghc 2.8 to the dollar and had depreciated by 17.6 per cent in the first quarter of this year alone compared to 1.1 per cent in the same quarter last year.
At the rate at which the currency was deteriorating, he said, it would hit Gh¢3 per dollar by the end of the second quarter.
He said with interest rate hovering around 30 per cent and gross reserves in months of imports having dwindled to 2.6 months of imports, and trade deficit well over $4 billion, among many other disturbing figures, the situation was dire.
According to him, the evidence of the true state of the economy could be found in the everyday lives of the people: in the market places, in the residences, in the workplaces, in the industries and in the streets.
Public debt
He said the Mills - Mahama administration inherited a total public debt of $8 billion at the beginning of 2009, a figure which translated to 33 per cent of GDP in the non-rebased economy.
Within five years, however, the debt had escalated to more than Gh¢ 55.6 billion, which is a 485-per cent increase in debt stock over five years.
He said the debt stock was equivalent to about 58 per cent of the rebased GDP, adding that by the end of 2014, the figure was likely to reach 60 per cent.
Inflation
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu noted that over the past five years, government propaganda machine had been in overdrive in cheering government for achieving single digit inflation instead of confronting the practical challenges facing Ghanaians.
Since August 2013, he said, the rate of inflation had continued to rise from 11.5 per cent to 14 per cent in January 2014, far higher than the government's own upper band target of 11.5 per cent.
He said it was for those reasons and many others that the minority had always advised the government to stop the cheap single digit inflation propaganda and the often unnecessary and unreasonable borrowing from the domestic market and let interest rates climb down so that businesses could borrow, grow and create jobs.
Health
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu lauded the government's efforts to build 600-bed regional hospitals but said the nation needed to derive value for money in whatever enterprise it committed itself to.
Therefore, he said, it was worrying that what was coming up as the cost of the upgrading and rehabilitation of the Ridge Hospital appeared to be above what the actual cost should be.
He said the figure the government had quoted as the rehabilitation was $305 million, while Crown Agents, the company employed by the state to do due diligence, had quoted $162 million.
He said Crown Agents further said the contract agreement was likely to expose the Ministry of Health to an unacceptable level of risk and also advised the government that the proposed price of $305 million could not offer value for money for the taxpayers of Ghana.
"We in the NPP Parliamentary caucus insist that this matter be brought back to Parliament for further interrogation. There will have to be a motion for rescission to allow for reconsideration of the matter. This agreement cannot be allowed to stand. The nation is being short-changed and Parliament must rise up in unison to confront this apparent malfeasance,” the Minority leader said.
What is even more worrying is the fact that the Ministry of Health, after their attention has been drawn to this impropriety went into negotiations with the contractor Bouygues Batiment International.
