NPP calls for immediate attention to rescue economy

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused the government for not doing enough to calm the current turbulence in the economy and called for an immediate reconvening of Parliament to address the problems.

The Party proposed that the majority leader should appoint a special bi-partisan committee to assist the Minister of Finance to work out short-term proposals that would restore confidence in the economy and stop the alarming plunge of the cedi. "The committee should outline proposal that will reduce corruption and capital flight and propose lasting measures to strengthen our currency and suggest policies to deal with the economic crisis," the party's presidential candidate, John Agyekum Kufuor, told a packed press conference in Accra.

Leading members of the party, including its chairman Samuel Odoi-Sykes, deputy Minority leader, Mrs. Gladys Asmah, the spokesmen for Finance and Foreign Affairs, Dr. Kofi Apraku and Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, flanked him. Also present were spokesmen on Legal and Constitutional matters, Nana Akuffo Addo, and the minority whip, Mr. Samuel Boafo.

Mr. Kufuor said in order to reduce pressure on the cedi, conserve foreign exchange, "and show that we are now prepared to live within our means," government should take immediate measures to ensure that companies comply with the foreign exchange retention regulations. He reiterated the party's position that government should abrogate the agreement on the purchase of the presidential jet, saying, "we need those 23 million dollars elsewhere."

Mr. Kufuor said the contract between the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Canadian Company, Chagnon, to collect refuse from the city should also be abrogated "because we do not need to pay 21 million dollars a year to collect Accra's garbage." He called on government to introduce greater transparency into the divestiture process so as to boost public, as well as, investor confidence in the program and to generate more foreign exchange.

Mr. Kufuor, who quoted the current dollar rate as more than 5,000 cedis, castigated the government for its silence in the face of the unprecedented plunge of the currency, saying they have no idea of what to do. "We will tell them what to do," he declared to a prolonged applause from the audience, which included veteran politician Professor Adu Boahen.

He said he disagreed with the government's attempt to blame the economic problems on the rise in petroleum prices and the decline in gold prices, saying, "the fault is not outside the country, it is inside Ghana." Mr. Kufuor said the long-term cause of the crisis is the mismanagement of our economy. "This government has failed to restructure the economy. After 19 years of sacrifice by the people and so much help from donors, the NDC has taken us back to the same colonial economy that we had at independence: "We are hewers of wood and drawers of water, producers of primary commodities only."

Mr. Kufuor cited various attempts made by the NPP leadership as well as its members in Parliament, to help check the sliding of the economy saying, things did not work due to the "arrogant refusal" of the government to listen to others. He said in order to compel the government to listen now, all facets of the Ghanaian populace should rally behind the NPP and add their voice to the party's call to restructure the economy.

Mr. Kufuor also commented on the role of the Breton Woods institutions, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), in the management of the Ghanaian economy, and the perceived domination of Malaysians in the key sectors. He said a government of the NPP would not entirely cut itself away from consultations with the IMF or the World Bank but it would go to them when necessary and with its own solutions.

He was reacting to suggestions that the economy is run on the policies carved by the two institutions and, therefore, the current macro-economic problems should be blamed on the policies and not on the government. Regarding Malaysia, the NPP presidential candidate expressed admiration for the Asian country for her leap into development, saying that he would not blame Malaysian investors for coming to Ghana.

He said he would rather put the blame on government for not doing its best to learn how Malaysia, which was at the same level with Ghana at independence, made it instead of just selling out key companies to Malaysian companies.

"After all, a wise leader will study how the Malaysians did it and will not allow them to colonize us," Mr. Kufuor said, after Mr. Odoi-Sykes had remarked that "Malaysia is the financial capital of Ghana." Nana Akufo-Addo and Mrs. Asmah stressed the need for divested state assets to be foremost offered to Ghanaians before others are invited to take them up.