NPP on brink of committing economic manslaughter - GCPP

THE NEW Patriotic Party (NPP) government is on the brink of committing economic manslaughter and electoral suicide if it goes ahead to increase fuel prices without its corresponding salary adjustments, Dan Lartey, leader of the Great Consolidated People's Party (GCPP), told the CHRONICLE.

He said by so doing the government will be inflaming an already precarious economic situation. "My worry about the present situation is that the government seems not to have any programme for that."

According to the septuagenarians, lack of production and the over importation of fuel by the government had landed the nation in its present crisis and that government would have to pay the price.

Mr. Lartey said the government has failed the people because it has no solution to the fuel problem.

Suggesting an alternative, Mr. Lartey said the best the government can do is to put in place a workable policy of using the country's human and financial resources to push the country forward before it grinds to a halt.

He was of the view that the ?400 billion HIPC dividend distributed to district assemblies to enhance campaign projects and some government departments could have championed the country's production process, adding that "in no time the money is gone and they have nothing to show."

Commenting on the unemployment situation, Mr. Lartey said, "Unemployment is going to run high, and because the government has not been able to create jobs, people's perceptions are also running high just as the high incidence of robbery in the country."

Referring to the abortive IFC one billion dollar loan, he asked President Kufuor to "look inside for the finances for production other than chasing loans he cannot secure thus making himself a laughing stock before the rest of the world."

He described ex-President Rawlings' rejection of the "Goodwill" extended to him at Christmas by State Protocol and President Kufuor's Sekondi statement he attributed to his predecessor as "appalling" and called on the two statesmen to ensure that Ghana's infant democracy grows in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility.

"Ghana is at a cross-roads and the country is not ready for the consequencies," he stressed, adding that the action of ex-President Rawlings is a pointer to the fact that he is not ready to smoke any peace pipe.