Ghana’s Current Situation Worse Than Days Under HIPC – Kwesi Pratt

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