[ 2017-01-17 ]

IMF program wasn’t approved by Parliament – Akoto Osei
The minister-nominee for Monitoring and
Evaluation, Anthony Osei Akoto, has denied that
Ghana’s loan agreement with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), was approved by parliament.

According to him, the National Democratic Congress
(NDC), side-stepped parliament to sign the
agreement.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, Mr. Akoto
Osei said although some legislators in the
minority of the previous parliament brought the
issue before the house and threatened a court
action, government failed to seek parliamentary
approval for the agreement.


“Even though the IMF programme was signed by
government, it was never approved by parliament…
It is an executive arrangement between the
government and the IMF, but the people of Ghana
did not approve of it,” he said.

He noted that, it was in the interest of the IMF
to ensure that its subsequent agreements received
parliamentary approval.

“We raised the issue and we threatened to go to
court, we didn’t go but it is still an issue. It
is in the interest of the IMF that this type of
thing is not done without parliament.”

The NDC government led by President John Mahama
signed the deal for a 3-year Extended Credit
Facility (ECF) Programme for Ghana with the IMF,
for a total support of US$918 million in 2015.

The programme was among other things to help
restore debt sustainability and macroeconomic
stability to foster a return to high growth and
job creation, through agriculture and
infrastructure investment, while ensuring prudent
social spending, and to help rebuild external
buffers.

Following the swearing-in of a new government led
by the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Nana
Akufo-Addo, calls have been renewed for a
renegotiation of the deal, which many say has
negatively affected the country.

Some key aspects of the deal which many have
suggested for reconsideration is the freeze on the
net employment of public sector workers.

But according to the former minority spokesperson
on Finance, renegotiating the deal will not be
new.

“A programme that runs any period of time will
certainly come up for renegotiation either from
government or the IMF. If the IMF finds out that
we have met some targets, they will call for
renegotiation.”

He emphasized that, the new government must prove
to the IMF that it can reduce taxes and still meet
the IMF targets.

He however assured that, the Ministry of Finance
and the Economic Management team will look into
the matter of a moratorium on employments into the
public and civil services and take a decision.

Source - citifmonline.com

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