[ 2017-05-18 ]

President Nana Akufo-Addo

Flagstaff House ex-gratia cheques bouncing; Akufo-Addo confesses to financial cr
The government of Ghana is broke and might soon
have difficulties paying workers, honouring debt
obligations and also meeting payments to
contractors they promised a One Hundred Day
payment plan by Nana Akufo-Addo, during the 2016
electioneering campaign, because he and his men
know where and how to raise money.

Already, the Flagstaff House, has been hit by an
avalanche of bounce cheques paid to the former
officials of the John Mahama government as their
ex-gratia.

The Herald is informed that, some of the Mahama
appointees, have since the third week of February
presented the Bank of Ghana cheques to their
banks, but they are returned with the explanation
that government has no funds to honour the
payments.

One Senior Advisor to President Mahama told The
Herald that, he had since April 24, this year
lodged his cheque with his bank four times, but
they were returned on all occasion with no funds.

Some of the Ministers and Deputy Ministers, who
served in the Mahama government, had gotten theirs
in the second and third week of February, but also
could not get the funds transferred into their
private accounts.

Another female presidential staffer confirmed the
situation to The Herald via text saying “Prez
Staffers got theirs 24th April…. Chqs bouncing
more than Speed Rangers”.

Sources inside the Flagstaff House and close
associates of Mrs. Akosua Frema Osei-Opare,
revealed to The Herald that, she has told the
victims of the bounced cheques that, they should
keep presenting the documents to their banks, with
the hope that it will be honoured one day.

Interestingly, President Akufo-Addo, appears to be
responding to the concerns by being frank with the
many, including agitating worker unions in the
country by simply admitting that his government is
cash-strapped.

But as usual, he laid blame for his
administration’s inability to settle arrears of
many worker unions at the feet of the erstwhile
Mahama government.

“There are some things that should be easy to
deal with but will prove difficult for some time
to come largely because there is no money. But now
arrangements are being put place that will enhance
the generation by the state,” the president
explained.

President Akufo-Addo, was speaking during a
meeting with the leadership of the University
Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) in the wake
of protests and threats of strikes from a number
of labour unions.

“The economic situation my government and I
inherited was not the best; both in terms of the
growth of our economy and the balances available
in the public treasury. Many of the problems you
are putting here are the results of a poor office
treasury.”

“If we had money in the public system, you would
find that many of the issues that concern you
would not be there,” he stated.

The President noted that one of the most apparent
problems, money-wise, had to do with leaks in the
system resulting from corruption,
maladministration and the like.

Thus, he stressed the need to institute mechanisms
to plug these leaks so that “the money we
require to fund our own development will be
immeasurably enhanced. Our need to go around
begging people to help us will be reduced
dramatically.”

In this stead, the Akufo-Addo administration, is
looking to save some GH¢35 million monthly in
payroll costs and a total of over GH¢250 million
in 2017.

This followed the government’s identifying of
close to 50,000 ghost names on the payroll and
Pensions Registry.

The government has stressed its commitment desire
to sanitise the public payroll system and rid it
of ghost names thus, the Minister of Finance in
April 2017 directed that names of 26, 589 public
sector workers be removed from government’s
payroll noting that those who were to be affected
had not been registered on the new Social Security
and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) biometric
system.

Source - theheraldghana.com

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