Politics of Tuesday, 26 September 2017
Source: adomonline.com
2017-09-26
Seth Terkper
Former Finance Minister Seth Terkper says his fiscal decisons cannot be blamed for the 2016 defeat of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He told Joy News’ Emefa Apawu Monday every decision he took was well-thought out and properly vetted by government before it was implemented.
He said he could not have afforded to dole out money to people when the country was going through some critical moments in its history.
“We couldn’t keep the Single Spine Salary Structure at 70 percent including arrears, about 60 percent excluding arrears without doing something about it.
You had to take some difficult measures,” he explained.
Many former government officials have been blamed for what has largely been described as the abysmal performance of the NDC in the 2016 presidential poll.
Some of the critics who were in the past regime have laid part of the NDC’s defeat at the Finance Minister’s door step because of what they described as his “rigid policies.”
Public Sector Accountancy lecturer at the Accra Technical University, Dr Ibrahim Zubairu said Mr Terkper failed to appropriately respond to the then opposition NPP’s claim about the mismanagment of the economy.
But Mr Terkper said he is pleased with his performance as the Finance Minister and that of the government.
He said despite a difficult power crisis which plunged the country into darkness, his government was able to put in adequate measures to solve the problem.
He believes the energy sector may not have been given a clean bill of health if he had not taken some of the decisions he took during the period.
“I am happy with what we left behind, he said, adding, that the nation faced significant setbacks with the dumsor.
Mr Terkper stated no economy could withstand the experience Ghana went through in the hands of its West African neighbour.
Also in 2016, the Finance Ministry allocated more of the of oil money to Capacity Building (¢83 million), whereas Agriculture which is the backbone of the economy was allocated ¢27.6 million.
Mr Terkper explained his decision should not be misconstrued because it was guided by the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, one of the strictest laws which regulated the two sectors he allocated the monies to.
“The Budget allocation is approved by Parliament and we should be careful in just taking Capacity Building as a headline as it could have benefitted the Agric Sector,” he said.
