President John Mahama has told government’s team negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure they do not accept a programme that will bring untold hardships onto Ghanaians.
He charged them to be guided by the social democratic principles of government.
[contextly_sidebar id=”CI75ZbnCftA3oEEqYHigR1zEzh5jsCyx”]The President made these remarks in an address to his ministers at a meeting organized to deliberate on the implications of the IMF program.
Ghana is in talks with the IMF for a bailout out programme to bring the country’s economy back on track.
The programme will roll-out from January 2015 and is expected to run for about 3 years.
President Mahama on Sunday, assured Ghanaians that this may be the last IMF programme that Ghana will seek.
Wage Bills and Expenditure Controls
President Mahama said government intends to lay before Parliament a more systematic plan of policy measures on wage bill reduction as part of measures to reduce the huge public wage bill.
This, he said, will help tackle fraud and other malfeasance in the pay roll management.
Speaking on wage bills and expenditure controls, President Mahama said several intitiaves have also been undertaken and are underway to tighten expenditure controls and address leakages in the management of public expenditures.
“You know there is a lot of waste in the public sector, we are dealing with this consistently in order to improve services to our citizens.”
Debt Stock
President Mahama said government is also committed to addressing the issue of debt stock with both short and long term debt management strategies that seek to arrive at a more sustainable debt
“We continue to seek the development of and delivery of efficient social services to our citizens and provide for the most vulnerable segment of our society especially women and the disabled and we expect that this will form a keypad of the programme we agreed with the IMF,” said the President.
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana