HIPC is a 'trojan horse' - Parliament buckle

Rt. Rev. Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, Catholic Bishop of Koforidua, has described the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative as "a Trojan horse" saying Ghana should not have rushed to join it.

He said HIPC is another experimentation of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) or PAMSCAD, imposed on Ghana by the West through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and "it is bound to fail us."

Bishop Palmer-Buckle was speaking to The Standard in an exclusive interview at the Bishop's House in Koforidua. Visibly dismayed that Ghana had opted for the HIPC initiative, the Bishop said the debate should continue, because HIPC does not take into consideration the plight of the poor.

Bishop Palmer-Buckle declared that HIPC is not the answer to debt cancellation and Ghana should not have allowed itself to be carried, may be, by the British to be rushed into accepting HIPC. He described HIPC as a double edged sword which the creditors and donor countries are using to avoid facing the definite cry and call of poor countries for a total cancellation of their debts.