Vice President of IMANI-Africa, Bright Simons
Policy analyst Bright Simons has sharply criticised the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its limited ability to hold Ghana’s government accountable, pointing to three structural barriers that undermine effective oversight.
In an interview with Joy News, the IMANI Africa Vice President argued that expecting the IMF to act as a strict fiscal disciplinarian is “fundamentally unrealistic,” given its design as an intergovernmental organisation.
“The IMF is an intergovernmental organisation. 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.
Simons 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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