The Dr. Bawumia-Ken Ofori-Atta led leadership is likely to become legends in the annals of economic history by entering the Guinness Book of Records as the worst ever the globe has witnessed, Minority Leader, Dr. Ato Forson has said.
The Ajumako Enyan Essiam MP says the rate at which the NPP government is borrowing despite the country’s debt to GDP ratio being at its worst ever level is alarming.
His comments come on the back of a $710 million loan approved by Parliament for Executive expenditure after the House was reconvened from recess for an emergency sitting Tuesday, May 2, 2023.
“I’m surprised that the NPP has the courage to take additional loans at this critical moment. We are in a major hole and when you’re in a hole, the first thing you do is to stop digging so that you don’t continue going down. Unfortunately this government will not stop digging,” he indicated.
“Today I said that Ghana probably we’ll enter the Guinness Book of Records for being a country that has defaulted in the repayment of its debt –external and domestic; a country that is insolvent; a country that is bankrupt as we speak and yet, they want to add to the public debt,” he told TV3 in an exclusive after Parliament approved the five loan facilities.
The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee said the loans approved do not meet the 35% minimum threshold to qualify as concessionality, the reason Ghanaians should be worried over the accumulated debts by the NPP government.
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“Today alone, Ghana considered and approved loans worth $710 million, approximately ₵9billion that will add to the debt.
“It’s not concessional because concessional loans are loans that meet 35% minimum concessionality. Some of these loans get only 26% concessionality.
One of them is a conccessional loan but majority of them are not concessional. Some of them 25% concessionality, it doesn’t meet the minimum concessionality of 35%. Aside that, either concessionally loans or non concessionally loans, we should be careful where we channel these money to because in the end you’ll repay. These loans are not grants. They’re not free money. Even if someone gives you grant you have to put it into proper use. But these loans, where the loans are going to are a major worry.
“If you look at the primary healthcare investment programme, the name suggests as if the government is going to build hospitals or buying equipment but majority of this are for the purposes of consultancy services. Chunk of this money is going to consultancy,” he explained.
He added that: “If you take another $150 million for Public Financial Management Systems (PFM), chunk and I can confirm to you that that $150m going into PFM about 95% of them is going into consultancy and capacity building and for some people to go for courses abroad and all of that. That is what it is meant for.”
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