An Economist, Dr. Godfred Bokpin, has described as overambitious, fiscal targets set by the government in its 2016 budget statement and economic policy.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”BZ8AxJeTrYQ6Nwv3Sx0ENYcefJfFsywh”]His basis is due to what he refers to as a limited time frame and a challenging economic situation to facilitate the implementation of the budget statement.<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Seth Tekper, on the floor of parliament on Friday affirmed government\u2019s resolve to reduce the country\u2019s budget deficit to about 5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016.<\/p>\n
Also, the Statistical Service has revised Ghana\u2019s GDP growth from 3.5 to 4.1%.<\/p>\n
But in an interview with Citi Business News<\/strong>, Dr. Bokpin said government needs more time.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of the extent to which the budget will actually transform the economy, we are a bit limited especially where the economy is trying to transform it, we need more than twelve or twenty-four months.\u201d<\/p>\n He added \u201cthere have to be a consistent plan based on productivity enhancing reforms, infrastructure investment and private sector leadership. As it stands now, we don\u2019t have the financial resources to be able to do all of these.\u201d<\/p>\n The Finance Minister also outlined some public sector management reforms in a bid to enhance the efficiency, transparency and accountability of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Systems.<\/p>\n These included; Cabinet\u2019s approval of a comprehensive PFM Strategy with an accompanying action plan and results framework; a new overarching PFM Bill which is currently being drafted and expected to be passed into law in 2016, to provide a stronger regime for budget planning and formulation, execution and monitoring.<\/p>\n The law is also intended to provide a comprehensive approach to macro-fiscal management, budgeting, and treasury and debt management, accounting and reporting of the use of all public resources.<\/p>\n Although Dr. Bokpin agreed with the reforms being rolled out by the government, he advocated an effective policy framework.<\/p>\n \u201cOne good thing that the minister talked about is the public sector management reforms that are ongoing but these things are more effective when they are bundled together or when they are reinforcing\u201d Dr. Bokpin stated.<\/p>\n In a related development, a Member of Parliament\u2019s committee on finance, Dr. Osei Assibey, has cast doubt over government\u2019s ability to spend within its target.<\/p>\n \u201cJohn Mahama\u2019s record of 2012 where he overspent by about 4.8 billion Ghana cedis and going to 2016 with him as the president, I am scared he is going to overspend\u201d He said.<\/p>\n The Chairman of the Parliamentary select Committee on Finance, James Klutse Avedzi, however says government is likely to overspend if labour demands exceed government\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a kind of a signal that it is sending to all Ghanaians including labour; that whatever you are demanding should be guided by the fact that the government does not want to overspend so if that is followed, then the President will not overspend. But if labour pushes, and it is supported by the general population, then government\u2019s aim will not be achieved\u201d He said.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Pius Amihere Eduku\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Economist, Dr. Godfred Bokpin, has described as overambitious, fiscal targets set by the government in its 2016 budget statement and economic policy. [contextly_sidebar id=”BZ8AxJeTrYQ6Nwv3Sx0ENYcefJfFsywh”]His basis is due to what he refers to as a limited time frame and a challenging economic situation to facilitate the implementation of the budget statement. Finance Minister Seth Tekper, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":166745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[43,21,4],"yoast_head":"\n