Government has chastised the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for only criticizing government policies and actions without offering alternative measures to solve the nation’s problems.
A Deputy Information and Media Relations Minister, Felix Kwakye-Ofosu accused the NPP of engaging in politics that is “dominated by unnecessary partisanship and the throwing of unfounded allegations against government.”
The Minority Legislators in Parliament on Monday organized a press briefing where they presented their own state of the nation address in contrast to that of the President which was delivered in February.
Minority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu said the President got it all wrong when he claimed that the economic fundamentals of the country are sound because existing economic challenges being experienced indicate that the nation’s economic fundamentals are hopeless.
He also attributed the rapid depreciation of the cedi to the incompetence of the Mahama government and predicted that the cedi will hit one dollar to three cedis by the close of the second quarter of 2014.
In response however, the Deputy Minister was of the opinion that the submissions made by the NPP “is not different from what they have said before. It is not different from what Dr. Bawumia said a couple of weeks ago.”
He stated that the NPP failed to recognize the “structural and systemic challenges we’ve had with our economy over the period” and therefore attributing the depreciation of the cedi to government’s incompetence is flawed.
According to him, the depreciation of the cedi is a cyclical problem and should be treated and addressed as such.
Regarding Ghana’s current debt, Mr. Kwakye-Ofosu said it is surprising for the Minority leader to claim that “there is no evidence of work done with the monies that have been borrowed is for me an admission of failure on his part as a Legislator.”
He explained that it is impossible for government to borrow epically from outside the country without the minority having the chance to scrutinize the loan in Parliament.
“So it is not possible for the Minority to deny knowledge of the things that the monies that have been borrowed had been used for” adding that “there is ample proof of work that this government is doing with the monies that have been borrowed,” he said
Click on link below to listen to Felix Kwakye-Ofosu
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana