Pressure Group, OccupyGhana has opined that Ghana would not have sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if it had recovered lost monies.
The group is demanding answers to how credible this would be for the country.
“This return to the IMF for a ‘paltry’ $2B leaves a bitter taste in our mouths. We would not be submitting ourselves to this forced and humiliating ‘Ghana [is not yet] beyond aid’ position if we had prevented the losses and thefts in the first place. In the second place, we would not be here if we had taken the simple steps of recovering the monies lost and stolen.”
“How credible is this return to the IMF, when the monies we seek, sit comfortably in the bank accounts and pockets of those who caused us to lose the monies or who stole our monies?” portions of a statement from the pressure group said.
The group added in a statement that “We have noted from the statement of the Information Minister, that Ghana would be seeking about $2B from the IMF. $2B is roughly ₡16B. Is that ALL we need to tide us over the mess that we find ourselves in? And do we have to go scurrying to the IMF to provide that, when from the Auditor-General’s Reports, calculated from 2016 to 2020, the amount of monies lost or stolen is ₡47,945,579,875?”
“In dollar terms, that is almost three times the $2B we are going for. Clearly, we would not need the IMF if the government was serious about recovering these lost and stolen monies, and then plugging the holes that allowed them to be lost or stolen in the first place.”
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo says the decision to go to the IMF is for the short term and that the economy will bounce back.
According to President Akufo-Addo, “Economies have been plunged into recessions, businesses have collapsed, and lives and livelihoods have been disrupted. Food and fuel prices have escalated dramatically, as global and domestic inflationary pressures mount. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, the world will make up on lost time.”
Swearing in 10 Ambassadors and High Commissioners at Jubilee House, on Thursday, 7th July 2022, the President stated that “in our case, we have decided to seek the collaboration of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to repair, in the short run, our public finances, which have taken a severe hit in very recent times, as a result, while we continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal of creating a Ghana Beyond Aid, that is building a resilient, robust Ghanaian economy.”
He was confident that “determination, hard work, unity and the proverbial Ghanaian sense of enterprise, we will make it, we will succeed. Indeed, this, too, shall pass.”
By: Tainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
