The Member of Parliament for Builsa South Dr. Clement Apaak has slammed a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko for stating that the government was forced to go to the International Monetary Fund.
The legislator is claiming that the comments by the lawyer are far from the reasons that led Ghana to seek an IMF bailout for the 17th time.
Mr. Otchere-Darko has said the government was compelled to seek a bailout at the IMF, adding that the government was left with no choice as the proposed E-Levy that could have helped resolve our debt stress was frustrated by the minority.
“Yes, there were challenges, yes government came with its policies to see how to address those challenges and those policies were frustrated by the very parliament that we have.
“I am not too optimistic about why we are in the IMF, it is unfortunate that we were forced there because the policies that were brought did not get the support that it required so it had actually no option,” he added.
According to Mr. Otchere-Darko, the decision to seek help from the IMF was taken by the government as a necessary move to avoid any further burden on the country’s reserves among others.
Gabby Otchere-Darko said although he was not positive about going to IMF, he believes it was the last resort.
But Dr. Clement Apaak has taken a swipe at Mr. Otchere-Darko over the comments he made.
He identified several factors he suggested were to blame for the economic stress Ghana was going through at the moment.
He mentioned what he termed as gargantuan corruption, loot of public funds, and huge tax waivers to cronies as some of the reasons we are where we are today.
He also mentioned widened revenue loopholes at the ports, unprecedented sole-sourcing contracts, rental of luxury jets at ridiculous rates and refusal to act on audit findings by the government.
