A former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr Gheysika Adombire Agambila is urging government to close down some dormant embassies abroad to reduce government’s expenditure on the public sector.
According to him “we have embassies in places that we don’t need,” hence the need to close them down immediately to reduce the pressure on government.
Government is currently struggling with the wage bill which is eating up more than 50% of government’s revenue.
Government is also struggling to generate money internally as the Ghana Revenue Authority keeps missing its revenue targets.
[contextly_sidebar id=”MXAxI9tYCRkihv9FuCZ8iQcc3ScdaDYp”]In the midst of the difficult financial challenges, government still finances the operations of its many Embassies across the world and the activities of Ministries, Municipals and agencies (MMDAS).
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday Dr Gheysika Agambila insisted that “we need to reduce the size of the public sector” adding that other efficient ministries and department could be taken off government subventions and the payroll system.
“There are a lot of agencies that could leave off the services that they provide. DVLA, Food and Drugs Authority, and many agencies could live off the services that they provide. They should charge fees that can be used to maintain them so they would be off the public sector payroll. Sports is a business and should largely run as such. So there are a lot areas that we can reduce public sector expenditure” he indicated.
He further cautioned government over the creation of more Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) saying “the proliferation of districts and constituencies; all these are adding to our public sector wage bill and something ought to be about that,” he said.
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana