The Majority in Parliament has expressed fears that purported GHc 7 billion unaccounted expenditure by the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, could compromise the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Extended Credit Facility (ECF) with Ghana.<\/p>\n
Addressing the press today [Thursday], the Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee,\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Assibey Yeboah, speaking on behalf of the Majority, warned that if figures were not reconciled with the right data from the previous government, the country could be sanctioned by the IMF.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”Coc56d37gTTPYUFbBEfrRYznrD04J7kO”]He cited an instance in 2000 when Ghana was fined $39 million by the IMF.<\/p>\n
This press conference was in response to the Minority\u2019s attempts to downplay claims by the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, that the previous government failed to account for GHc 7 billion they spent while in office.<\/p>\n
The Minority explained\u00a0that, the fund was used for part of the contract database and outstanding commitment, and did not constitute the\u00a0conventional\u00a0definition of arrears.<\/p>\n
The Minority\u00a0explained that, the Ghc 7 billion that the Vice President Dr. Bawumia is talking about \u201cis as a result of a major initiative or reform on government contracts and expenditure, which is part of the GIFMIS project that the new administration is expected to continue implementing. The framework is also covered in the new Public Financial Management (PFM) Act, under the Budget Responsibility provisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr.\u00a0Assibey Yeboah, however, surmised that the previous government may not have been forthright with the IMF.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the face of the reality that the arrears date back to 2014, then it will suggest that when the previous administration entered into negotiations with the IMF,\u00a0full\u00a0disclosure of data was not made available to the fund.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, on account that arrears for 2015 and 2016 were not fully disclosed, that raises further questions\u00a0on\u00a0the integrity of data that we have been churning out over the past eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Implications for 2016 deficit<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr.\u00a0Assibey Yeboah highlighted the implications for the year 2016, noting that, already deficit projected for 2016 is hovering around 8.5 to 9.5 percent of GDP, according to the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance.<\/p>\n \u201cThese\u00a0new\u00a0uncovered arrears could put the overall budget deficit at 10 to 11 percent of GDP… For an economy like ours, the current deficit numbers show that in 2016 alone, our expenditures far outweighed our revenues by as much as $4 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is an\u00a0admission by the minority that the GHc 7 billion expenditure which had been kept out of the purview of the books of government constitutes rare expenditures that have been taken.\u201d<\/p>\n IMF could clear up matter<\/strong><\/p>\n Given the ongoing implementation of the extended credit facility,\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Assibey Yeboah is of the view that the IMF stands in a better position to make some of these issues clear.<\/p>\n \u201cAs to whether this represents a breach of the ECF programme conditionality, we will know by next week when the mission chief is expected to brief donors on his findings.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnder the programme, the government is not allowed to accumulate arrears. This may yet represent another serious breach of the programme and if care is not taken, punitive actions could be taken against Ghana,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n By:\u00a0Delali\u00a0Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Majority in Parliament has expressed fears that purported GHc 7 billion unaccounted expenditure by the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, could compromise the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Extended Credit Facility (ECF) with Ghana. Addressing the press today [Thursday], the Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee,\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Assibey Yeboah, speaking on behalf of the Majority, warned that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,11],"tags":[389,1230,3606,3,1538],"yoast_head":"\n