The government has been under fire from the Minority in Parliament for attributing the present economic woes to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The opposition caucus claimed that even before the pandemic, the government had mismanaged the economy and brought the nation to the verge of a budgetary crisis.
Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee Isaac Adongo discussed the concerns of the Minority and contended that the government should not use the pandemic as a scapegoat for its mishandled economic policies in his comments on the Finance Minister’s 2024 Mid-Year Budget Review presentation.
“Even before COVID-19, the government of the day had already plunged this country into serious fiscal quagmire. We were expected to record changes in our net international reserves. Mr. Speaker, we missed it in March and June and we’re looking at September 2024.
“This government had been on our case that it is because of COVID-19 that is why we’re in this situation that we find ourselves. However, the Bank of Ghana issued a statement indicating that at the time that we exited the programme in May 2019, the government of Ghana five months later was struggling with major concerns within the fiscal environment.
“Mr Speaker, it is not true that the problems are attributable to COVID-19,” the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament said.
In this election year, Deputy Finance Minister Abena Osei Asare reaffirmed the government’s commitment to fiscal restraint, citing 2.9% in savings in the first half of 2024.
“Mr. Speaker, we were able to stay within our budgetary constraints during an election year. We had allocated GHC1, 48 billion for spending from January to June 2024, but we have only spent GHC1, 1 billion. Additionally, we have made some savings below GHC2.9, which was less than what was originally planned for. Our determination is in living within our means and ensuring that we don’t exceed the recommendations made for us.
