Campaign spokesperson for John Mahama, James Agyenim Boateng has expressed shock and outrage at Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for engaging in social media antics in a time when the nation is confronted by serious economic issues.
According to him, the 2020 mid-year budget review by Ken Ofori Atta reflects the woeful performance of the Akufo Addo government on the economy.
In a statement he said, ”the people of Ghana want to know how the Akufo-Addo government spent over 11 billion Ghana Cedis on COVID-19 without any meaningful improvement in the fight against the spread of the virus. For example, medical doctors, nurses and other health professionals consistently lament the inadequacy of Personal Protective Equipment, leading to some of them needlessly being infected and dying of COVID-19. Ghanaians want to know how the government spent 54.3 million Ghana Cedis on food packages in less than 3 weeks of lockdown in selected parts of the country, especially when many vulnerable people say that they did not benefit.”
He added, ”the government has failed to explain to Ghanaians how it provided “parallel fiscal numbers” to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank; in December 2019 (as part of the Article IV consultations), which differed from what the Minister of Finance was requesting Parliament to approve at the time; and in March and May 2020 when the government presented the same “parallel fiscal numbers” simultaneously to Parliament and the IMF negotiating team at the time the government applied for the US$1 billion COVID-19 Rapid Credit Facility (RCF), which represents 100% of Ghana’s allowable quota for borrowing from the Fund. 4. It is important to point out that borrowing to the limit of Ghana’s 100% quota from the IMF implies that Ghana has hit its borrowing limit with the Fund, at least for the time being.”
He further jabbed Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to focus on helping the President rescue the failing economy and quit playing comics on social media.
”It is even more shocking to observe that at a time when the nation is confronted by such serious economic issues, which have forced the government to borrow to its very quota limit from the IMF, Dr Bawumia would still have some spare time to take to social media to engage in his trade mark comical, frivolous, ludicrous, outrageous and diversionary antics. Finally, the point must be emphasized that when the story of the Akufo-Addo government is told, it will be a litany of lies, falsehood, deceit, dishonesty and manipulation of figures under the auspices of Dr Bawumia as Chairman of the Economic Management Team.”
Source: GhanaFeed.com
