Stop blaming Covid-19 for your economic mismanagement – Minority tells govt

The Minority in Parliament has slammed the government for blaming the current economic challenges on the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the minority caucus, the government had already mismanaged the economy and plunged the country into a fiscal crisis before the pandemic struck.

Commenting on the 2024 Mid-Year Budget Review presentation by the Finance Minister, Isaac Adongo, the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, outlined the Minority’s concerns and argued that the government should not use the pandemic as a scapegoat for its economic mismanagement.

“Even before COVID-19, the government of the day had already plunged this country into serious fiscal quagmire. We were expected to record changes in our net international reserves. Mr. Speaker, we missed it in March and June and we’re looking at September 2024.

“This government had been on our case that it is because of COVID-19 that is why we’re in this situation that we find ourselves. However, the Bank of Ghana issued a statement indicating that at the time that we exited the programme in May 2019, the government of Ghana five months later was struggling with major concerns within the fiscal environment.

“Mr Speaker, it is not true that the problems are attributable to COVID-19,” the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament said.

A Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei Asare assured that the government is committed to fiscal discipline in this election year, highlighting a 2.9% savings achieved in the first half of 2024.

“Mr Speaker, in an election year, we have been able to spend within our limits, we budgeted a GHC1, 48 billion to be spent from January to June 2024, but we have spent GHC1,1 billion, we have made some savings below GHC2.9, below what was actually budgeted for. We’re bent on living within our means, we’re bent on making sure that we don’t go over and above what has been proposed for us.”