Majority Leader wants parliament to check fiscal discipline amid rising debt

By Eugene Davis

mark as far as development is concerned, because, that is what the electorate shall remember the government for.

However, he added that the country should be equally concerned about the means to that end, stressing that every government has been borrowing to add to the stock of debt.

ment plan is not properly situated. Until we put the proper mechanism in place, what is happening today may repeat itself.

We need scal discipline. The otherwise central role of NDPC which remains unful lled is one of the reasons why many are calling for a holistic review of the Constitution,” he added.

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has asked the legislature to step up its oversight role to ensure scal discipline is followed by central government in a bid to curb over-borrowing.

According to him, all stakeholders including parliament have been negligent in its oversight responsibilities, explaining every government will strive to leave an indelible

Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu during the nal debate on the State-of-the-Nation Address on Friday, said “Parliament should be the body to ensure that we spend within our means. Parliament does no have a Committee on the economy to do this analysis.”

“The NDPC which exists to create a long-term develop-

He also justi ed the government’s decision to seek a US$3bn funding from IMF, contending that “No country engages the IMF if the country is not a icted by economic challenges.

Story continued from page 5 Have we been reckless in borrowing and expenditure? The records do not lead to that conclusion. Could we have done better? Upon hindsight it may appear we over exaggerated our strength in a few areas. Notwithstanding, there is empirical evidence to show that this government has not underperformed. In sharp contrast with its immediate predecessor administration the government has done enormously well, notwithstanding the current hiccups.”

Drawing sectorial comparisons, he indicated that in the area of agriculture, for the last 3 years of the NDC regime agriculture growth averaged 2.0 whereas for NPP’s tenure over the past 3 years the average, if we include the provisional gure for 2022 of 4.9%, takes it to an average growth of 6.7%, that is more than 200% better.

Under President Mahama, industry grew at 1.1% in 2014; 1.2% in 2015; 4.3% in 2016. The average rate of growth for industry in the last 3 years of President Mahama was 2.2%. Under Akufo Addo in 2017, industry grew at 15.6%; in 2018 it grew at 10.5%. In 2019 it grew at 6.4%. The average industrial growth for the rst 3 years under Akufo Addo was 10.8%.

This compares to the 2.2% under John Dramani Mahama.

Further, he disclosed that the rate of economic growth has more than doubled from the average2.8% growth that President Mahama bequeathed to his success or administration.

He also stated that in spite of the COVID-19 and Russian-Ukrainian con ict, the country remains self-su cient in the staples of cassava, plantain. “We no longer import them from Cote d’lvoire. We have not imported maize for human consumption over the past 3 years. Rather, neighbouring countries have been buying these, especially maize, yam and rice from Ghana.

We cleaned up the banking sector and saved depositors from the mismanagement of some deposit-taking houses which really should not have been given licences to operate as banks.”

The debt stock of the NDC calculated year-on-year in dollar terms, he said was about $47 billion. Year-on-year what the NPP has added is in the regionof $32billion.”In Cedi terms the debt stock appears insurmountable but we must workour way out, together. And that is why we have had to go back to the IMF.”

Parliament is required to partner government to hasten the negotiations with the IMF after achieving the Sta Level Agreements in December 2022, by passing the remaining nancial bills of the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill, Excise Stamp (Amendment) Bill and the Growthand Sustainability Levy Bill. The passage of these Bills would sanctify the country before the IMF Board and at the same time rev up our domesticrevenue mobilisation e orts, the Majority Leader noted.

Economy stabilised

For the majority leader, the President at the very outset admitted that any honest assessment of our country’s situation would necessarily involve the “gravity of theeconomic situation of our country, and how we can quickly stabilise the economy, and work our way back to the period of rapid economic growth”.

Continuing, the President did not mince words, when he stated: “our currencyhas been bu eted, our in ation rate has been very high and, for the rst time in our lives, debt exchanges have become the language of everyday conversation”.

“That is brutal frankness. A lot of critics have jumped onto the bandwagon to blame the current administration for where we are today and it is the reason why the President stated, Mr. Speaker, when we make an assessment of what the Stateof theNation is, it would necessarily have to include what state it was inyesterday, the State it is in today, and what state it would be in tomorrow, basedonreasonable grounds of expectations”

The economy, it goes without saying that next elections would not only be fought on th estateof the economy today, no thanks to the rampaging e ect of the Corona-Virusand the Russian-Ukrainian imbroglio, but also on the management of theeconomy. In this, the track record of the two parties is crystal clear to all who have eyes to see and ears to hear, except persons whose stock-in-trade is propaganda.”he added.

President Akufo-Addo listed agriculture, health, education, roads, tourism, and digitization initiatives as areas that bene tted from funds borrowed under his administration.