Shelve decision to build constituency offices for MPs – Mahama to Nana Addo

Former president John Dramani Mahama has suggested some frugal measures to president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his governing New Patriotic Party's (NPP) administration to save the country from collapse. According to the former president, there is a need for the president to shelve his decision to build some 275 offices for Members of Parliament (MPs) in the various constituencies across the country. He stressed that this project may not be frugal during this economic crisis. He rather suggested offices be made available to the MPs in the various District Assembly offices across the country. He further suggested for the government to make available some government bungalows for the use of the MPs as offices to save costs at this time. He said the cost of building will be far more costly if the government arrogantly sticks to the decision to build the offices from the scratch. The former president made this suggestion to the government in the wake of the economic crisis on his State of Ghana’s economy held at the University of Professional Studies, Accra, on Thursday, October 27 2022. “Building offices for MPs may sound prudent and politically sound but that’s not what the country needs at this juncture,” he said. Mr Mahama said: “To be clear, we are in this mess because an untouchable finance minister, relying on his Databank workers, and neglecting the advice of seasoned experts at the Finance Ministry, has been left to run this economy into the ground.” “We are in this mess because a so-called ‘solid economic management team’, over the last few years, has been unable to call the president’s cousin to order when he embarked on a reckless borrowing spree, indiscriminate closure of indigenous banks and financial institutions, and a creative presentation of economic statistics to make our situation look rosier than the reality,” he charged. “We are in this mess because we have a president who fails to take responsibility and has instead left the nation on autopilot in the hands of bungling ministers who he describes as ‘excellent’,” Mr Mahama added. He recalled: “Last December, the president is on record as having said the present economic mess is not his fault.” “For emphasis, the biggest blame for the current tragic situation with our economy lies with the very people are charged with managing the country – not with the pandemic, not with the war – our country has been unprofessionally managed, and Ghana has been treated like an experimental playground and a family heirloom,” he charged again. “And I regret to say, this was all avoidable. Things could have been different, and I remain very convinced they could,” he also said