The 2012 Presidential candidate of the Progressive People`s Party (PPP), Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom has blamed governments excessive spending during the 2012 general elections for the economic woes afflicting the country in recent times.
The government is seeking support from the International Monetary fund (IMF) to shore up the economy which is struggling with a huge budget deficit, heightened inflation, and increasing public debt.
Some economists have blamed the situation largely on government’s continuous borrowing to raise the needed funds to execute most of its development projects.
[contextly_sidebar id=”pa2RI1VyAzQdbXl7DDNpLetpXYfKv2EU”]Although such profligate spending happen mostly during election seasons Dr Ndoum insisted; that of 2012 “…was worse.”
Addressing a press briefing in Accra in reaction to government’s acceptance of seeking the IMF bailout, Dr Nduom argued that “the amount of money involved [in the 2012 election] is much bigger than we’ve ever had in our history and that’s a significant party of the problems that we are experiencing.”
He said; “Unfortunately we didn’t spend those monies on building super highways or building oil refineries or building power plants, we bought cars for people, we bought Ipads for people, we paid for billboards, we did all sorts of other things to make some people temporarily happy so they can go and cast a vote a certain way. ”
“That’s what we did with the money and so the money is gone. There is no return coming, so if you go and buy power that way and we have this sort of a problem who should we blame?” Dr Ndoum asked.
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana