The National Democratic Congress (NDC) yesterday organised a public forum on the 2022 budget statement and government economic policies which they dubbed “Awudie” to explain their stance on some key issues which has bedeviled the budget.
It was organised by the National Communication Bureau of the NDC under the theme: “ What the 2022 budget means for you as a Ghanaian,” and was addressed by Eric Opoku, the Member of Parliament for Asunafo South, a Ranking Member of Parliamentary Committee on Food and Agriculture, and Isaac Adongo, the MP for Bolgatanga Central, a member of the Finance Committee of Parliament.
The public forum attracted participants such as students from many tertiary institutions in Accra, professional bodies and a cross-section of the general public.
In his opening remarks, Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the NDC, said the party would revisit the issue of the otherwise passing or rejection of the budget in parliament to know their real stance of the e-levy in the budget.
He said even if the majority group in parliament decided to use their numerical strength to bulldoze its way for the passage of the budget, the Minority would not concur to the passage and would hold the majority accountable in all the budget deliberations at whatever level.
Mr Nketsia said that as stakeholders engagement continued, the minority caucus in parliament has ruled off any boycott of parliamentary proceedings to offer constructive criticisms of the e-levy to ensure proper accountability to Ghanaians.
He said if the government was saying the expenditure in the budget would outrun the revenue generation part, then the best place to cut cost should be the expenditure of some privileges enjoyed by public officials.
Mr Isaac Adongo said since the government has used propaganda to run the economy, the realities of their economic mismanagement was catching up with them, thus the harsh budget presented.
He said in the past, governments had engaged stakeholders in the process of presenting the budget, however, this current government has departed from such practice and was doing otherwise, as if the budget was meant for them only.
He said the budget presented for next year and the introduction of the e-levy was meant to address their five years of mismanagement and ineptitude, adding that economic solution was not an event but a process. Therefore, the ambitious e-levy should not look like the panacea of all economic solutions.
Mr Adongo said that since the government usually used the COVID-19 pandemic as the cause of the current economic situation, he would want to place on record that the financial situation of government was challenging even before the emergence of the pandemic.
He said this was because when NDC was leaving office in 2016, despite the implementation of the single-spine salary structure , the party left with the public wage bill paged at GhC 14 billion, however, the current government has shot the wage bill to GhC 35billionn currently.
Mr Adongo said the bill has shot up while there has not been any significant rise in the increment of public salary, adding that until the government purged itself of consumption economy and create a lean and efficient public sector , the situation would get worse.
He said the government used to tout some of their flagship programmes as the cause of the financial challenges but he challenged that dispensation since less than 10 per cent in the budget was allocated for those flagship to thrive.
Mr Eric Opoku said out of the current budget statement, the government has allocated 12 percent of revenue expected to undertake capital projects, thus public wage bill and debt servicing would take the rest.
He said when the NDC was leaving office in 2016, the party left a debt of about GHC 112.5 billion which was used for intensive capital investment project while the current government, after accounting for a debt burden of 220 in five years, could not point to a single project the money has been used for.
Mr Opoku said as at the time NDC was leaving office, it had established a lot of funds to take care of any economic mishap, however , the government has depleted all the monies from these funds with the excuse of COVID pandemic.
He said whereas the government continued to run double digit economic deficit, pointing to COVID, it peers in the West African region continued to create a single digit deficit in their economies , therefore, the government economic positions were untenable.
BY LAWRENCE MARKWEI
