Govt’s reckless fiscal behaviour, creative accounting cause of economic crisis

The Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson, continued his criticism of the government’s management of the economy ahead of former President John Mahama’s speech on the economy.

Dr. Forson singled out a lack of transparency from the government with respect to Ghana’s debt as the reason for Ghana’s current economic crisis.

“Let me say government’s reckless fiscal behaviour and creative accounting is indeed the reason why we are where we are.”

“Government decided to hide critical debt numbers and national statistics from Parliament and the world to create the impression they are doing well. And that is why this [the economic crisis] is coming to all of us.”

For example, Dr. Forson said the government was not forthright about the fiscal deficit when borrowing money.

He said the government came to Parliament with GH¢11.6 billion to finance a deficit of 3.9 percent of GDP, but “indeed that was false.”

“They actually borrowed GH¢21.4 billion to finance a fiscal deficit of 7.1 percent of GDP. So they hid from Parliament an amount of GHS 10 billion and the Ghanaian people didn’t know they borrowed in excess of what they had reported,” Dr. Forson said.

The legislator believes Ghana will require a debt relief of around GH¢200 billion to make Ghana’s current debt sustainable.

The government is currently seeking $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund to support the economy.

Government as part of processes for securing support from the International Monetary Fund is expected to restructure some of its debt.