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 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.
Source: adomonline.com
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THEN YOUR DEATH IS JUST NOT FAR FROM 39 MONTHS FROM TODAY. YOU HAVE KILLED YOURSELF
We were doing ok even without oil money..... What did you Tekper and your b0.gus NDC govt do with the huge oil money? The worst was on top of that you went to IMF to beg for money..... After imposing so many nuisance tax on us..... No one in Mahama govt should receive their huge ex-gratia. They are all greedy... No wonder the NDC will never come back to power again in my life time.....
This man paaaa, so you are happy with the defeat you left behind, to borror from your boss, i cant think far.
Well, but people also say Mr Seth Tekper is no friedly at all, they say his human relations too is verypoor both within and outside the ministry,i saw on T V John Mahama stating publicly that there was pressure from within his own government to sack Seth Tekper as finance minister,how come?.Again any finance minister who thinks outside the box should be looking at what can be done to ensure that new employees in the public are paid their salaries within six months after starting work and not for them to work for two years only to be paid three months salary arrears with the rest still pending up to date, people have gone to borrow, rent rooms on credit, buy food on credit,bought clothing on credit with the hope that they will settle thses debts when their salary arrears are paid them only for you to end up paying only three months and still expect such people to vote for you,the interesting thing is that when it came to political appointees they were paid all arrears due them, you think we are ***barred word***-s,the least said about the N D C appointees the better, simply but they could not think outside the box,what they knew best is inflated contracts/10 percent and J M, Toaso,i cant think far.
Your slogan was' There is no money'. A good finance minister indeed. Keep quiet and sleep. Ppl hv bn finance miniters at terrible times than yours. U shaaaa. thats all
4 years in dumsor and u are proud of that?
WHY BLAMING HON SETH TERKER.... DONT RATHER ASIEDU NKETSIAH FOR HIS ROUGH TALK..
your pomposity, arrogance, intransigence and led to the defeat of the NDC