A former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mona Quartey, has advised the government to cut down on expenditure before asking citizens to burden-share.

This, she said, would send the right signals to Ghanaians.

“Cut government expenditure starting from [the] Jubilee House, down to the ministries, down to political appointees.

“Rationalise and keep only those you need, then come down to bare basics then you are signalling correctly and then you can ask for burden sharing,” she said on Accra-based Joy News’ ‘The Pulse’ on Wednesday, January 18, 2023.

Madam Quartey said the government is sending the wrong signals by requesting citizens to burden share when they had not made efforts to cut down expenses.

“What signals does government send when they say we should burden-share when we don’t see a cut in government expenditure, I mean everyone has been talking about it, finance and non-finance people,” she added.

She explained that Ghanaians are ready to contribute their quota to help Ghana stand on its feet, but the approach government has adopted is unfair.

“I am sure every Ghanaian wants Ghana to get back on its feet but that can only be done if the right signals are sent to us, not when you are taxing us some more without any growth, not when you are hiking our cost of living and then now you are asking us to burden-share that is unfair,” she added.

Ms Quartey added that “at this point, we have totally destroyed the culture of savings.”