The Minister of State in-charge of Finance and Allied Institutions, Fiifi Kwetey has accused the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia of inciting public sector workers to demand more wages from government.
“I felt what Bawumia did yesterday was indirectly inciting the workers of Ghana to actually demand for more… it was a very unpatriotic attitude…by telling them that they are the cause when the truth is that they are the cause,” he said.
Dr. Bawumia, who is a visiting lecturer at the Central University College in Accra on Tuesday, addressed a public lecture on “Restoring the value of the Cedi.”
In his address, he asserted that the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) should not to blame for Ghana’s economic woes.
He also accused government of excessive borrowing which is endangering Ghana’s oil discovery, he also took a swipe at the Bank of Ghana’s measures which are currently being implemented to save the free fall of the cedi saying, “it will not work.
The Economist however suggested a few solutions when considered will strengthen the economy and halt the cedi depreciation including; an exercise of fiscal discipline, the checking of revenue leakages and excessive borrowing, the effective tackling of corruption, expanding the tax net and so on.
Responding to Dr. Bawumia’s Lecture, on Eyewitness News, Mr. Kwetey explained that the BoG’s measures relating to foreign currency accounts were aimed at addressing “fundamental causes and also what we call aftershocks.”
He therefore noted that blaming dollarization as being the cause of the cedi depreciation is a wrong assumption saying, “for anyone to presume that the central bank or the government of Ghana or the economic managers feel dollarization is a problem, you already got it wrong to begin with.”
On the issue of the Single Spine Salary Structure, Fiifi Kwetey said the 2012 vice presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) address on the single spine is indicative that he is “clueless.”
According to him, “if somebody tells you that Single Spine is not a problem, the person obviously is clueless. He hasn’t taken his time to understand the issues…Bawumia obviously shows to be clueless.”
Mr. Kwetey admonished the NPP to present people with deeper knowledge and practical experience to talk about the economy “as opposed to a theoretician who clearly has no clue what is going on.”
The Ketu South Legislator further mentioned that Dr. Bawumia’s claim that the country is gradually heading back to status of a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC), “is a bit sad because it comes from a certain simplistic assumption that simply having debt is a problem to a country.”
He urged critics of the government to look at “what the debt is being used for. If you are using your debt to finance infrastructure, you clearly will be having problems in the immediate but you are obviously building a strong foundation that is going to accelerate your growth.”
Click on link below to listen to the full interview
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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