Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper,
Kwesi Pratt Jnr. is disappointed in the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration as he
believes they have failed in making Ghana better.
Speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo",
Mr. Pratt ascribed Ghana's current situation to bad decisions by the incumbent
government.
Raising concerns about how the government has mismanaged the economy, Mr. Pratt
said, "our brother Ken Ofori-Atta went to Parliament. When he
was going to Parliament, I didn't tell him to go; I wasn't there. The figures
he presented to Parliament were not written by me. It was his own figures . . .
When he went there, he said due to COVID, we acquired money and we got GHC 19
billion for COVID-related expenses and the 19 billion we got for COVID-related
expenses, the money we used to directly address the COVID was 12 billion".
He continued that Ken Ofori-Atta was asked "after spending 12 billion
out of the 19 billion, what did you use the 7 billion for?" and "he replied they used it for other areas. So, if we get 19
billion for COVID and spend 12 billion to remain 7 billion, how does COVID
become a problem to you. It means you even had benefits from the COVID".
He continued; "When you check total government expenditure, it is
close to 300 billion for the two years. COVID expenditure for the period is
less than 10% of total government expenditure. So, with our current situation,
COVID does not explain it."
To Mr. Pratt, Ghana's "current situation is worse than
the HIPC situation".
"Go and check your figures on HIPC. The time we were going to
HIPC, we were spending 67% of total export revenue on debt servicing. That was
HIPC. Today, what is the total national income that is bigger than export
revenue? IFS has revealed that, when you take our total national revenue including
our royalties, taxes and so forth, 128 percent are spent on public sector
emoluments and debt servicing," he explained.
Source:Peacefmonline