Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu presenting the address
The Minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Parliament has painted a gloomy picture of the nation, stating that Ghana’s indebtedness is choking the economy.
The current state of Ghana’s public debt, according to the NPP, means that every Ghanaian, including new born babies, automatically owe a whopping GH¢1,340 (¢13million).
The Minority NPP MPs made this known yesterday when they presented what they described as the true state of the nation, cataloguing the ills that are plaguing the country including shambolic utility supplies.
Quoting from the 2009 budget, the minority caucus pointed out that the Mills-Mahama administration inherited a total public debt of $8billion (equivalent to GH¢9.5 billion) at the beginning of 2009, but by 2012, the debt had climbed to a massive GH¢33.5 billion.
At the end of the year 2012, the NDC government spent in far excess of GH¢8.7 billion.
Presenting a 33-page document yesterday which touched on every facet of the economy, the minority caucus, led by Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said the economy is in trouble with creeping despondency, and mistrust accentuated by unbridled corruption, “making multimillionaires of people who have not sown” anything in their lives.
The minority NPP decided to present the “True State of the Economy”, when it complained that President John Dramani Mahama’s constitutionally sanctioned State of the Nation Address, which he delivered last week, deliberately left out the gloomy conditions underlying the Ghanaian economy.
It is not the first time that the Minority in Parliament will present a state of the nation address as the then Candidate John Evans Atta Mills, in 2004, after the Minority NDC, then led by Alban Bagbin, boycotted President John Agyekum Kufuor’s State of the Nation address, presented what the NDC called the “true state of the nation address”.
It was addressed by Prof Mills at the National Theatre, Accra.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu lamented that within just four years, the country’s debt has escalated to this unprecedented levels.
“It means every year, from 2009 to 2012, the NDC-led government added GH¢24billion to our public debt, 55percent of which was borrowed locally.
This means that government has been competing with the private sector for money domestically,” he pointed out, lamenting that it is the unemployed youth who are expected to repay this debt some day.
“At Ghana’s current debt, each of us (25 million Ghanaians) owes GH¢1340, that is, over ¢13 million per person. This debt does not include the $3billion Chinese loan.
If we include the yet-to-be-disbursed Chinese loan, each Ghanaian would owe about GH¢1600, that is about ¢16million,” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu added.
He recalled that in 2009, the NDC Government told Ghanaians the NPP Government had engaged in profligate spending and left them with a unprecedented arrears amounting to GH¢1.8 billion cedis.
However, at the end of 2012, the stock of arrears had increased to a whopping GH¢5.4billion, which is still continuing, excluding amounts owed to COCOBOD, SSNIT, GETFund, DACF, NHIS, road contractors, among others.
True State of Economy
“The true state of the economy can be found in our everyday lives; in the industries, in the markets, and in the streets. The cost of doing business has shot up, and so unemployment in both the formal and informal sectors is widespread.
“High cost of living is taking its toll on all of us, and justifiably, public sector workers are demanding pay rise from government. In brief, standards of living are falling, life is becoming unbearable, and our people are getting poorer.
“Public financing are out of control and the economy is in trouble, to put it simply. What are the causes of the sharp decline in the economic circumstances of ordinary Ghanaians?”
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu asked, reiterating that the constitutionally mandated message delivered by President John Dramani Mahama on February 21, 2013, was like promises on political campaign platform and not the true state of the nation.
According to him, the ruling NDC has for the past four years thrived on failed promises, deceit, reckless expenditure and unachievable projects and programmes in all sectors of the economy, a summary of which is given below.
Unbridled Overspending
According to the Minority, the Office of Government Machinery (The office of the President), last year spent in excess of GH¢600 million or ¢6trillion above its approved budget.
“What did the office of the President spend this money on? We want to know why the Social Protection Programs (SPP) spent over GH¢700 million or ¢7 trillion?
The nation wants to know why and how the Ministry of Youth and Sports last year spent over GH¢300million above its budget. What has been so perfectly defined? Ye be dii k3k3!
Is it also true that NADMO spent over GH¢300million just in the last quarter of 2012?” The Minority caucus quizzed.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu pointed out that the NDC administration had been so lucky to have so much resource at its disposal including oil and a booming cocoa industry, yet all the blessings have been eaten up by economic mismanagement.
He regretted that even though the NDC administration has borrowed much more money than all previous governments put together, there is very little to show for the huge debts the state is piling up.
Energy Sector
The minority group noted that in 2008, whilst criticizing the NPP for the power crisis of 2007 and early 2008, the NDC insisted that it “would ensure the supply of power on a reliable and sustainable basis”.
The NDC boasted that it would “ensure the delivery of energy services to all consumers in a secure, efficient, reliable, sustainable, safe and environmentally-friendly manner”.
Regrettably, however, the minority leader said, the current energy crisis is the most badly handled in the country’s history.
“This time, the crisis was not caused by the low levels of water in Akosombo which has been the usual cause of previous energy crisis.
The energy crisis is caused by shortage of gas and financial difficulties of the VRA which makes it difficult to procure the right quantities of crude oil and diesel to bring all their plants into operation,” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu pointed out, stating that “these factors are within our control and we should not have allowed them to bring the level of energy crisis we have now.”
“We know that gas is cheaper than light crude but if your source of gas supply is not secured, what is important is to improve on the liquidity of VRA to procure the alternative light crude oil.
The NPP government used to support the VRA to procure light crude oil (about $40m every month).
This support was withdrawn by the NDC government. This, in addition to about $400m of government’s indebtedness to VRA, has crippled the company and made it difficult to procure these fuels for power generation”.
According to Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the President has failed to solve this problem and is rather promising additional new generation capacity.
He said even though the NDC promised to increase electricity generation capacity to at least 5000 megawatts in the medium term, “the truth is that they have only added two megawatts”.
Fuel Price Increase
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the recent price increases in petroleum products in the country gave hints about the hypocrisy of the NDC.
“From pledging to ‘drastically’ reduce the prices of petroleum prices, we now continue to see a spiraling of those same prices as well as utility rates.
The untold hardships that this increase has brought unto Ghanaians has raised hue and cry in every corner of the country, including even the NDC – sympathetic CJA leadership themselves,” he maintained.
Trade, Industry and Tourism
Touching on the trade, industry and tourism sub-sectors, the minority caucus indicated that because of the free fall of the cedi, a lot of local traders have had difficulty keeping their shops also as they cannot protect their working capital.
This difficulty, according to Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has been compounded by the invasion of Chinese and other foreigners in the retail trade.
“The effect is that most Ghanaian retailers are operating at losses and some have had to fold their operations. Another issue facing internal trade is the huge price differential between the farm-gate and the markets in the urban centers.
These wide differentials are as a result of huge cost of transportation resulting from previous and current price escalation of petroleum products.”
On manufacturing, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the sector has been on the decline since 2008, adding that “manufacturing share of GDP fell from 6.9 percent in 2009 to 6.7 percent of GDP in 2011 and continues to dwindle.
The growth in the sector was -1.3 percent in 2009 rose to 7.6 percent in 2010 but fell to 1.7 percent in 2011 and is expected to be below the 2008 level of 3.7 percent in 2012”.
According to him, a major cause of the dwindling manufacturing sector is the inappropriate tariff regime instituted by government, which did not allow fair competition against imports.
“It is also affected by ineffective border controls and loose inspection at the port that allows dumping of cheap goods on the local market especially from China.
Other factors include lack of access to credit; high interest rates in spite of the trumpeted single digit inflation; high utility cost and the persistent intermittent power outages,” minority leader noted.
Commenting on tourism, he said the growth in the hotels and restaurants sector has not been encouraging in the last three years, pointing out that the sector grew at 9.08 percent in 2008, fell to -3.8 percent in 2009 and saw a paltry growth of 2 percent in 2010 then for the first time in recent times grew at a negative rate of – 11% percent in 2011.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said while statistics for the 2012 is not available, the negative growth, indeed the recession in the hotels and restaurants sectors in 2011, points at serious difficulties faced by the sector which is supposed to be one of the most promising sectors of the economy.
Education Sector
The Minority caucus said knowing that education is a right everybody should acquire, the Kufuor government deepened the Free, Compulsory and Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) with the introduction of school feeding, capitation grant, free exercise books, and one lap-top per pupil project and the eradication of schools under trees project for which in two years over 680 schools were started.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu noted that even though the Mills-Mahama administration continued these projects and in the areas of the one lap-top per pupil and the exercise books to pupils projects, the government failed to deliver its promise of expanding the school feeding programme to cover all primary schools countrywide.
Health sector
The Minority caucus said as a result of pro-active health sector interventions over the 2001 -2008 period of the Kufuor administration, the NDC administration was bequeathed a very positive environment to carry the nation forward.
The achievements of the NPP administration, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu pointed out, were the implementation of a NHIS, a College of Physicians and Surgeons, a National Ambulance Service, expansion program, including the promotion of private sector participation, in the training of all categories of health professionals from Doctors, Pharmacists, Herbal Medical Practitioners, Optometrists, Physician Assistants, Nurses and Midwives, Laboratory personnel.
He added that the Free Maternal and Child care and the School feeding policies of the Kufuor administration could only be deepened in sync with the above to see a continuous improvement in health statistics.
The interventions by NPP administration, he noted, profoundly improved access to healthcare, with out-patient attendance per capita improving steadily over the years, from 0.45 in 2000, through 0.52 in 2004 to 0.81 in 2009.
“This is shown by the number of Out-Patient attendance as 8.32million in 2000 through 11.01million in 2004 to 19.75million in 2009. Maternal Mortality in 2008, though reported in 2010, was 350/100,000 live births”.
According to Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the interventions with the associated positive trajectory emboldened the NDC in opposition to claim in their 2008 Manifesto that, ‘within two years in office’, the NDC will “significantly reduce current troubling and unacceptable trends in Infant/Child and Maternal mortality, Review the NHIS to provide coverage for basic healthcare FOR ALL (emphasis ours) and review the un-wieldy bureaucracy and palpable corruption of the Scheme”.
He said years after the promise, the NDC II administration has quietly shelved the much promised One-Time Premium Payment Policy but rather advocating an increase in the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL)
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu noted that the NHIS, which was the major social engineering feat chalked under the Kufuor administration, and which should make financial barrier to healthcare access a thing of the past, has been pushed to the precipice.
“The ‘Cash-and-Carry’ of the pre-Kufuor times have been smuggled back into the system under the Health Insurance Scheme; a scheme which was aimed at eliminating catastrophic health expenditure!
Even when the Laws of the NHIS have always frowned on payment at the point of service the NHIA appears to be flat-footed to take action”.
Roads Sector
According to the Minority caucus, the nation’s road network suffered the worst maintenance in the history of the country during the administration of NDC-led government between January 2009 and December 2012.
“Maintenance of our roads has not only been of poor quality and slow paced but has been of untimely interventions. This neglect has resulted in rapid deterioration of our roads,” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu decried.
He observed that besides, roads selected for either upgrading or rehabilitation to bituminous surfacing, and others for expansion by re-construction to accommodate increased vehicular traffic volumes and reduce traffic congestions have progressed at unacceptably slow pace, adding that desired levels of service these roads are to provide for the growth of the nation’s economy and reduction of poverty are therefore not achieved.
Delay in Paying Contractors
The Minority Leader said the four year period of NDC-led administration had been characterized by undue delay in paying for contractor’s work done and “selective” payments to some contractors.
“Whilst it is true that previous governments had delayed in paying for work done, the Mills-Mahama regime has been the worst in the nation’s history.
Contractors have abandoned projects whilst others notified the Employer of suspension as a result of undue delay in payment. Consequently, contractors laid off workers, some selling their plant and equipment and shifting from road construction into other business sectors”.
Aviation
In the aviation sector, the minority noted that there is generally an improvement in the growth of the industry, especially in the domestic flights.
This, however, has resulted because of poor road surface conditions of sections of the central corridor and other trunk roads leading to the Airports, and the increasing carnage on our roads.
Kyei-Mensah-Mensah indicated that the aviation industry is facing a major problem of weak and failed runway pavement, especially at Kumasi and Sunyani.
“The NPP-led government rehabilitated the Takoradi and the Tamale pavements and for the past four years of NDC rule only patching of potholes and sealing of cracks have been executed on the tarmac to ensure safety of domestic flights,” he bemoaned.
He said except for the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, all airports close before 6.00pm since there are no runway lights in this ‘better Ghana agenda era’, questioning, “How much does it cost to provide runway lights to the remaining airports?”
Sanitation
The minority lamented that the country is currently engulfed in filth, further indicting the NDC administration which promised to clear the cities of filth within the first 100 days in office in its 2008 Manifesto.
“The Government has not provided specific actionable steps to deal with this environmental challenge. Is it any wonder that cholera broke out in Accra in 2011, 2012 the first time in over 15 years,” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu stated.
Housing Sector
On the housing sector, the minority caucus flayed the NDC administration for failing to deliver on its promises of housing for the people as its STX housing deal, which about 30,000 housing units for security agencies collapsed at birth.
“Since the shameful failure of the now infamous STX housing deal, the NDC government has not recovered sufficiently to offer Ghanaians fresh and better alternatives to the housing problem.
“Till date the NDC government has failed to complete and commission the 5,200 units of housing began under the Kufuor administration, even though most of the units are near completion. The failure to complete these units, started with our tax money, constitute an insensitive waste of government resources,” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu regretted.
Water Sector
The minority caucus bemoaned that at a time the nation is facing one of its worst water crisis, the NDC has failed to offer solutions, leaving ordinary Ghanaians to grapple with water supply their own way, possibly until some medium to long term solutions are implemented.
According to Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the current state of water delivery system in Accra could be summed up as shambolic, as it is plagued by inefficiency and not enough investment in the last four years
This, according to him, has resulted in over reliance on factory purified water by most residents, with serious financial consequences for low income groups, and the threat of water related diseases like cholera in very poor communities.
By Awudu Mahama
