Government won’t have to borrow money from foreign countries to supplement its budget if it is able to reduce corruption by just 30 or 40 percent.
This according to the flagbearer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Dr. Edward Mahama, could enable government have enough money to finance its capital intensive projects.
[contextly_sidebar id=”F4SftyjwpNemdmCWPg0vIpC6DskatFfW”]“If we reduce corruption by 30 to 40 percent, government will not have to go to the IMF [International Monetary Fund],” he said at a presidential town hall debate organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) on Tuesday.
“The simple things that we need to do to make the system work and functional and easy we are not doing it. If corruption is cut by 30 to 40 percent, government will have the money to undertake infrastructural projects. So basically the infrastructure we want to build we have the money to do it if we plug the loopholes through which individuals are siphoning government funds and that is what I will do as president.”
Dr. Edward Mahama, who is seeking to be President of Ghana on December 7, 2016, said “I will fire any minister that is corrupt.”
He observed that, successive governments only re-assign corrupt ministers saying such situation do not auger well for the country.
“Sometimes they just reassign them. If you are a minister of sports and you chop state money; they take you to the presidency that must stop, we must crack the whip and crack it properly. This is what I have been promising that I will be a leader who will abhor corruption,” he added.
Ghana loses $3 billion annually in corruption
Policy think, IMANI Ghana, noted recently that Ghana loses over $3 billion of taxpayer’s money in corrupt activities every year.
…My estimation about grand corruption in this country looking at the numbers from the Auditor General’s report on an annual basis and doing an extrapolation looks to me about $3 billion a year. I think it may be conservative but I think it is significant,” President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe had said.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin