Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simmons
Policy analyst Bright Simons has delivered a blistering critique of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) limitations in holding Ghana’s government accountable, revealing three structural barriers that prevent effective oversight.
Speaking in an interview with Joy News, the IMANI Africa Vice President argued that expecting the IMF to be a strict fiscal disciplinarian is “fundamentally unrealistic” due to its very nature as an intergovernmental organization.
“The IMF is an intergovernmental organization. To expect the IMF to play the role of a serious critic of the government, a serious scrutinizer of government is unrealistic.
“There’s a limit to it because at the end of the day, Ghana will also go to the board of the IMF governor represented and then try and push its case. So there’s an extent to which it can be an effective check on the government,” he said.
Simons also identified some other critical flaws in the current arrangement. He pointed to the IMF’s conflicting roles as both program designer and evaluator, creating institutional pressure to declare success regardless of actual outcomes.
“The IMF itself designs the programs for recovery. So the IMF itself has a very strong incentive to say the program is doing well because the IMF is part of the design. So to expect the IMF to be too loud and negative is just really unrealistic,” he added.
Simmons also highlighted the Fund’s need to project stability to attract investment, making it reluctant to issue negative assessments that might scare away capital.
“Part of the IMF’s success formula is to get other parties to think that things are doing well enough for the economy to truly recover. So the IMF signals to the investor community, other MDBs, etc. That things are looking good. So come and put money in Ghana.
“So if the IMF is doing that at the same time, because that’s part of the success formula of the program, how can the IMF be too negative?” he said.
The analyst saved his sharpest critique for Ghana’s own approach, arguing that mature economies don’t rely on external validation.
“Anyone that relies entirely on IMF policy, surveillance or whatever is not mature enough,” he said.
ID/KA
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