{"id":8912,"date":"2014-03-27T06:05:30","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T06:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=8912"},"modified":"2014-03-27T15:17:07","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T15:17:07","slug":"bawumia-is-unpatriotic-fiifi-kwetey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/03\/bawumia-is-unpatriotic-fiifi-kwetey\/","title":{"rendered":"Bawumia is unpatriotic \u2013 Fiifi Kwetey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fiifi<\/a>
Fiifi Kwetey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt what Bawumia did yesterday was indirectly inciting the workers of Ghana to actually demand for more\u2026 it was a very unpatriotic attitude\u2026by telling them that they are the cause when the truth is that they are the cause,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Bawumia, who is a visiting lecturer at the Central University College in Accra on Tuesday, addressed a public lecture on \u201cRestoring the value of the Cedi.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his address, he asserted that the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) should not to blame for Ghana\u2019s economic woes.<\/p>\n

He also accused government of excessive borrowing which is endangering Ghana\u2019s oil discovery, he also took a swipe at the Bank of Ghana\u2019s measures which are currently being implemented to save the free fall of the cedi saying, \u201cit will not work.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Responding to Dr. Bawumia’s Lecture, on Eyewitness News<\/strong>, Mr. Kwetey\u00a0explained that the BoG\u2019s measures relating to foreign currency accounts were aimed at addressing \u201cfundamental causes and also what we call aftershocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

He therefore noted that blaming dollarization as being the cause of the cedi depreciation is a wrong assumption saying, \u201cfor 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cclueless.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to him, \u201cif somebody tells you that Single Spine is not a problem, the person obviously is clueless. He hasn\u2019t taken his time to understand the issues\u2026Bawumia obviously shows to be clueless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Kwetey admonished the NPP to present people with deeper knowledge and practical experience to talk about the economy \u201cas opposed to a theoretician who clearly has no clue what is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ketu South Legislator further mentioned that Dr. Bawumia\u2019s claim that the country is gradually heading back to status of a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC), \u201cis a bit sad because it comes from a certain simplistic assumption that simply having debt is a problem to a country.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

Click on link below to listen to the full interview<\/strong>
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