Former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mona Quartey has described the nature of the Debt Restructuring Programm hinted by the Ministry of Finance as a gross infringement on the constitution of Ghana and threatens the country’s democracy.
She said this in an interview with Alfred Ocansey on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show on the back of the joint press conference by the; International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ministry of Finance, and Bank of Ghana held on 13 December, 2022 in which a Staff Level Agreement (SLA) between Ghana and IMF was announced.
“Clearly our democracy is being threatened at this time by the burden that is being placed more on the citizens than on the government. Some of these issues were raised in the censure motion that was brought against Finance Minister but it is sad the censure motion could not go through” she maintained
Mona Quartey expressed worry over the kind of consumption expenditure that has gone on the government and stressed the need for a massive cut down in the non-priority expenditure to send some positive signal that at least the government is trying to do better.
She recalled that Ghana witnessed some little capital expenditure during the 2020 electioneering period and the few that are coming up recently in anticipation to 2024 elections and emphasised the need for expenditure management but however the government has borrowed so much but there are no infrastructure projects to justify the borrowing.
According to the former deputy minister of finance, the NDC party agrees that there is the need for debt restructuring which they stressed some weeks before the government announced its domestic debt restructuring program but what they have announced is unacceptable.
“They have announced a program that grossly infringes on our constitution, and flouts the laws and regulations as detailed by the Attorney General in their opinion, and the attempt to implement is going to be difficult. I am sure you have heard from the TUC and financial institutions including the pension fund,” the former deputy finance minister stated
Mona Quartey opined that what is going on symbolizes the lack of integrity by the government v and will also erode the culture of savings that has taken some time to be imbibed in Ghanaians.
She stressed on the need for the government to be more consultative so that the generality of Ghanaians will buy into the Debt Restructuring Program that would be eventually rolled out later. Hence the government should take the lead in the cost and burden sharing sacrifice they are calling for.
“The overall action goal is to have micro stability but the problem that needs to be solved right now is restoring public debt sustainability. If the IMF does not get sufficient assurances and progress on this, we cannot go to their board for an approval to get an extended credit facility to support our micro economic stabilization” Mona Quartey concluded
By Samuel Afriyie Owusu|3news.com|Ghana