NPP wants government to cut waste, corruption
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on the government to cut waste and corruption as a credible alternative to indiscriminate borrowing and haphazard taxation.
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Prof. Yaw Gyan Baffuor, NPP ranking member on Trade, Industry and Tourism, stated that in 2012 alone, the government had borrowed GH¢7.1 billion domestically.
Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday, Prof. Baffuor said what it meant was that the government was competing with businesses for credit.
He said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government’s habitual and excessive spending which reached frightening and shocking levels in 2012, particularly during the last two quarters of the year, was not just unprecedented but obscene.
He said that the over spending for 2012 alone amounted to GHc4.8 billion
He said the situation had effectively crowded businesses out of the credit market.
He explained that this government’s over-spending and its associated denial of credit to businesses was one of the strongest factors inhibiting job creation and causing widespread unemployment in the country.
Prof. Baffuor said the NPP believed in free market and appreciated the need for the government to institute tax measures to raise money for national development.
He, however, said unreasonable and unmeasured imposition of taxes could only squeeze money unfairly from businesses and ordinary Ghanaians, hurt economic growth and lead to job losses as well as put more people in the poverty bracket.
Prof. Baffuor who is also a Member of Parliament for Wenchi, therefore, urged the government to take the advice of the Auditor General to recover the over GH¢2 billion that had entered corrupt and illegitimate pockets
He further stated that the Mahama administration ought to listen to and comply with the orders of the Supreme Court to recover dubious payments, including the GH¢51.2 million paid to NDC financier, Mr Alfred Woyome.
He said the 94 million Euros paid to Construction Pioneers, the 25 million Euros paid to Waterville ought to be recovered to the state otherwise the cloak of corruption would continue to clothe this government forever and ever.
In respect of electricity supply, the NPP called on the government to match the rising demand for power with supply to save both big businesses and small scale ones from collapse.
Prof. Baffuor said, for example, that without adequate power and water supply the ice kenkey seller could not do business, the barber using electric shaving machine could not work, the mechanics and welders could not do normal business.
He further said that bakers and food sellers, who take their raw food stuffs to the milling machines were left frustrated while the milling operators lost their daily incomes.
Prof. Baffuor said because water supply was insufficient and erratic, the mining companies and breweries were now importing water from La Cote d’Ivoire.
The ranking member of Trade, Industry and Tourism, therefore, called on the government to clear its indebtedness to the utility companies and invest in them to prevent power and water rationing, which had stunted the economic growth of the country.
The press conference attracted a host of NPP members of Parliament as well as former ministers in the Kufuor administration prominent among them were the minority leader in Parliament, Mr Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu and Mr Osafo Marfo, a former minister of finance.
By Abdul Aziz/Daily Graphic/Ghana