The Daily Statesman can state on authority that the Mahama Government is dead broke. It is so broke that there is no money to pay the salaries of public sector workers.
Afraid of the backlash in election year, Government has been forced to retrieve monies budgeted for the activities of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of State to be returned to the Treasury.
Disclosing this to our reporter, the Acting General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, John Boadu, produced a ‘Bank Transfer Advice’ from the Controller & Accountant General to the Bank of Ghana requesting for nearly half a billion Ghana Cedis allocated to some MDAs to be returned to the Treasury.
The advice states in clear language, “This transfer is to facilitate the payment of salaries.”
Those affected include Ministry of Roads & Highways, Ministry of Food & Agriculture, Ministry of Local Government, the Judicial Service, Office of Parliament, KMA, and the Ghana Immigration Service.
The letter, dated August 24, 2016, and addressed to the Director of Banking Department, BoG, reads: “You are hereby authorized to transfer the sum of GHS469,176,900.00 (Four Hundred and Sixty Nine Million One Hundred and Seventy Six Thousand, Nine Hundred Ghana Cedis) from the under listed Accounts into the Treasury Main Account No. 1018431499397 at Bank of Ghana. This transfer is to facilitate the payment of Salaries.”
The New Patriotic Party is, therefore, calling on the Mahama Government to “come clean on the true state of the state coffers. It looks like Government is forced to take back monies meant for roads and other things to pay salaries,” said John Boadu, who pointed to an amount of GHS200 million, which the letter instructed to be taken out from the Ministry of Roads & Highways account to be used for salaries.
“They are even taking back GHS20 million, representing the 15% retention of internally-generated funds that the Judicial Service is supposed to keep from filing fees, etc. This cannot be a good sign,” the NPP man said.
“Nearly 40% of all revenues are now used to service interest rates on debts recklessly incurred by this Government. So there is really nothing left to pay salaries and fund capital expenditure. This can only get worse if we keep President Mahama in office. He must go. He is too dangerous for the economy,” Mr Boadu remarked.
Late last week, the running mate of the New Patriotic Party’s Presidential Candidate, Mahamudu Bawumia, diagnosed the Ghanaian economy as lacking a foundation and at best having one made of ‘straw’ and hence fatally weak to build upon.
In response to the comprehensive presentation made by the NPP running mate, government has unleashed as always its verbal ‘attack dogs’ who as expected never tackle the issues raised but engage in distortions and distractions.
“We regret to tell Ghanaians the truth that the situation with our economy is far worse than what the President is putting out there,” John Boadu stressed.
“As they say, the devil is always in the detail. You know that an economy is running on a foundation of ‘straw’ when government has to recall monies allocated for projects in the various ministries just so it can pay wages of public and civil servants. It even goes as far as taking over internally generated funds by these agencies.
“The sheer size and weight of amounts being spent on interest, loans and debt servicing in relation to our income and GDP means the economy is heading for a collapse. Yes, that is how bad it has become,” the NPP National Organiser and Ag. General Secretary said.
To source from Dr Bawumia’s presentation, ‘The entire allocations in the 2016 budget to the Ministries of Roads & Highways, Trade and Industry, Food and Agriculture, Water Resources, Work and Housing, Youth and Sports and Ministry of Transport amounted to GH₵ 2.1 billion. Interest payments in 2016 (GH₵ 10.5 billion) would be five times more than what was allocated to these six key ministries combined’.
“Such an economy has no future. This is where we are!” said John Boadu.
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