Osafo-Maafo accused of stimulating figures

President Kufuor and Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo’s assertion that the country’s economy is certainly in a better state than it was in 2000 has been described as another example of praise-singing.

Minority NDC opened the debate on this year’s budget statement with a barrage of attacks on the government, accusing the Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo of “stimulating” figures and creating a virtual reality, which is far from the realities on the ground.

NDC MP for Lawra-Nandom, Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor told Parliament last Tuesday that contrary to what the NPP government would want Ghanaians to believe, the real GDP growth for 2001 is only 0.5 per cent, and not 4.2%, adding the impression being created as if the NPP has done some magic to revive the economy, is false. He explained that the 3.7 per cent was the performance in 2000.

“The budget of the Honourable Finance Minister, is a stimulation of figures and not reality,” Dr. Kunbuor said, adding, “the minister only stimulated the public with figures, amplified what should be amplified and actually hid what should be hidden.”

Dr. Kunbuor took the House through some economic theories, which he is not noted for, quoting figures to support his argument and ended up confusing even economic big names like Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, forcing the minister to his feet on a point of order.

According to the MP, only two sectors of the economy performed better last year whilst what he described as the “hub of the economy” did not see any remarkable achievement, adding, “certainly that is not an economy that is on track.” To him, the agriculture and service sectors rather performed abysmally.

“If you take the decline in the main sectors of the economy last year, then the minister cannot draw the conclusion he drew that the economy is better than it was in 2000.” He said the services sector declined from 5.4% in 2000 to 5.1% in 2001 whilst the coco sub-sector also dropped from 6.2% to 5.2%.

Dr. Kunbuor argued that only the stabilization of the cedi which he described as a “jobless stability” and the drop in inflation rates have been solely used to judge the performance of the economy leaving out the main sectors of the economy which according to him under-performed.

Minority spokesman on Finance, Moses Asaga who was the first to speak described the budget as “kwashiorkor” budget, which has no development polices and lacks the ingredients to achieve results. He told Parliament that the government’s targeted 4.5% GDP growth rate for this year would amount to under-performance and urged the Finance Minister to target 5 %, which according to him, is achievable.

According to Asaga, the Finance Minister has deliberately set the 4.5 % target knowing very well that the economy would grow more than that so he can praise his performance at the end of the year. He quoted an IMF document, which sets Ghana’s GDP growth rate for 2002 at 5% and wonders why the government after accepting the conditionality, now sets its GDP at 4.5%.

Asaga also criticised the HIPC initiative saying adopting it is no achievement “and therefore, there is no need for jubilation.” HIPC is a long and winding way towards debt reduction, he said adding, the country as result of its HIPC status has lost its credit rating in the international market.

He warned that HIPC in its present form is dangerous for Ghana, since it would compel government to remove subsidies on utilities, quoting what he called a confidential report from the IMF to support his argument.