The former Vice President of Ghana, His Excellency –Kwesi Amissah-Arthur says he wonders whether President Akufo Addo was describing the Ghanaian economy at his 2018 State of the Nation’s Address.
Procurement analysis not factual
Mr Amissah –Arthur said there’s certain lack of understanding when the president talks about sole sourcing.
Touching on the number of applications that were made to the procurement board for waiver for sole sourcing, he noted that President Akuffo Addo didn’t tell Ghanaians the value of all those 500 applications that were made, of which 200 were rejected but he suddenly came up with a value of 800 million.
The immediate past Vice President cited an example, that “you send 500 applications for waiver then one of them is ten million Ghana Cedis, the others are 20,000, 30,000, so it doesn’t matter whether that one is approved or not. Because that one is so big that if one is allowed, you can have the nine others of ten thousand and so on that total the whole of 100 thousand, it doesn’t compare to the one million.”
As Ghanaians, Mr Amissah-Arthur said we need to find out from the President the volume of the procurement that constitutes the 500 old request that he stated in his address to the nation, volume of approval so that we can then measure the 800 million against the total value of the procurement that he spoke about.
The immediate past Vice President further went on to state that “if you send a few high values procurements which will allow sole sourcing, it doesn’t matter if the thousand others are of such inconsequential amount, it becomes insignificant compared to the large ones and so, he doesn’t believe that they have been given us enough information that by the President.”
He also stated that when you take a look at the programs that NPP government is seeking to prosecute against the resources that are available, he gets worried about the fiscal deficit, adding that because we are living way beyond our means and have added more expenditure programs to already existing ones, that makes it problematic
“Nobody is cutting down any cost any of the programs and so they are running all the programs that the NDC had prior to this and have added new ones to it. He stated.And he’s saying that how much savings are you going to make from procurement that the President talks about.”
Mr Kwesi Amissah- Arthur said there’s a worry that government programs are overwhelmed by the ability of people to manage it and said fiscal discipline is important but also the programs must be measured to satisfy the need to be prudent.
IMF
Mr Amissah –Arthur said he was worried when the President stated with certain happiness that the IMF program was coming to an end and therefore things will be better.
He said the IMF program has been a challenge for them to manage because of the targets, saying “there’s an external body that is also analyzing also with you seeking explanations for what had gone on and forcing the government to explain the lapses that have happened, the data that are inconsistent with some of the plans that they had.
“Then when it comes to an end the burden then becomes that of the government explaining to the international community to the investors that what they are doing that is consistent to their economic planning.