Ex-Minister Attacks Privatisation And Calls for Resistance

The former Deputy Western Regional Minister, Hon. Seidu Paakuna Adamu has called on Ghanaians to resist any attempt by the NPP government to mortgage national interest to International Financial Capital since the management of the economy should be devoid of vested interest either local or foreign.

We condemn the intended privatisation of strategic companies like the ECG, Ghana Water Company, Tema Oil Refinery and all those IMF-World Bank conditionalities that are not in the interest of Ghana as a nation, he said.

Adamu, who was speaking at a press briefing organised by NDC parliamentary caucus in the Western Region in Takoradi last Tuesday noted that the economic policy being pursued by the NPP government has made it such that education and health services are going to be commercialized in the guise of cost recovery which means that a large number of people would be denied these vital social services of life.

The situation, he continued, would even be worsened by the government orchestrated transitional plan to adjust electricity tariffs to reach economic level of 100% by the year 2001 instead of a gradual adjustment to reach the economic level by the year 2003 proposed by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC).

According to him, the overall effect of this policy is the rising cost of living, pushing many a household who were hitherto above the poverty line into a new class of poor people with their children dropping out of school which is already on the ascendancy.

Death rate, he continued, is also going to be high as medical care becomes more inaccessible considering the fact that the aged, pregnant women and children under five years of age are no more exempted from cash and carry.

"These are the challengers of liberal market based economic policies of the NPP and not just that of the HIPC initiative. This is NPP and this is what they stand for - liberal asserted."

According to Adamu, the stability of the cedi which the government has been making a lot of noise about is artificial and cannot be sustained because at the moment it has been overvalued which to him, is a disincentive to exports especially cocoa which could be smuggled to neighbouring countries.

He further told the reporters that the cedi is protected by high Treasury bills interest and discount rates, which makes hedging in foreign exchange less attractive. The high interest rate also reduces credit to potential importers thus suppressing demand for the dollar.

Adamu who is also a Member of Parliament for Bibiani said the NPP government has since March, this year, targeted inflation and the exchange rate through what he described as cosmetic dressing at the expense of productivity growth, employment and income levels.

The question is, if the exchange rate has stabilized and inflation is falling why is the lending rate so high to crowd out the private sector in a so-called golden age of business, he asked adding that firms are being drained of working capital through inordinate high taxes and tariffs leading to the cut back on production and laying off workers.

Major S. K. Amponsah, MP for Mpohor Wassa East, who spoke on internal security, said the spate of armed robbery in the country shows that people are smuggling the powerful AK47 assault rifle into the country.

He, therefore, called on CEPS and other security agencies to tighten security at the country's borders to check the situation.