Not Yet Uhuru, Dr. Duffuor

Kwabena Duffuor, Finance Minister Last week saw the nation’s attention diverted from the myriad of challenges that confront us in the midst of the economic difficulties and the destructive path of the rains because the world's most popular President, in my opinion, of all times visited us in this country. He is not the most popular because he is the President of the United States of America, but the first Black American to have been elected to that high office of arguably the world’s most powerful nation. The expectations have died down, the best parts of the visit have been identified, the challenges that confronted the organizers have also been exposed, but the good news is that President Obama and his family visited and went back home safely. They will keep their experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly, to themselves. Their visit raised the image of this country a notch higher, but has not solved our problems. Let us now look at ourselves and the problems that confront us and how to deal with them. Prior to the visit of the Obamas, my respected Minister for Finance and a very good friend of mine (I have still not congratulated you vocally because we all lost contacts, accept my congratulations a second time through this medium) had announced that the government is on track because by the second half of the year, the policy of reducing the nation’s much touted deficit left behind by the last administration was on course. What that means is that the government is earning more revenues and spending less. Put differently, government expenditures are falling while revenues are rising. Alternatively, government revenues may be falling but expenditures are falling further to ensure that there is always some savings. But Mr. Finance Minister, it is a fact that there are still outstanding bills for the government which have not been settled. Many contractors who have presented their certificates have not been paid. MDAs are complaining that their FEs have not been released and so on and so forth. Are you proud of the savings you have made in the midst of these unpaid bills? It seems to me that the Honourable Finance Minister is behaving, to quote Dr. Abbey, “like a guy who is indebted to many of his neighbours and yet goes about displaying his bank account to show how much he has in that account.” Granted that the government has met all its financial obligations and honoured them accordingly within the time frame under review, is the Minister aware that as soon as the rains subside, willy-nilly, his government MUST, unless they do not care for us, but I trust for now that President Mills cares, look for funds to repair at least, if not rebuild, many of the roads and culverts that have been washed away by the torrents of the rains? Did the government make provisions for the destructive potent of the rains? Even the expenditures on the Obama visit perhaps need to be balanced. I am sure the Minister must be scratching his head. These can create deficits, you know. I can assure him that from next week, many of his colleague Ministers would be putting pressure on him to release funds to ameliorate the difficulties that have confronted our people as a result of nature doing its work. Has the Minister also considered the fact that the seriousness of the rainfalls has the potential to create food shortage in this country? My small maize and cassava farms are under threat because of the serious and persistent nature of rains particularly in the Western Region. That is only my small farm for my fufu and fonfom ( fonfom is a type of kenkey prepared with maize, indeed it is sweeter than any kind of kenkey in this country, particularly when you have kako stew added to it, do not ask me the English name for kako). If it becomes necessary for the nation to import food to make up for the shortfall that the destruction of food crops by the rains will bring about, will the Minister say no way because he wants to reduce the deficits? Even under normal weather conditions, the roads in the Western Region are very bad. Mr. Finance Minister, can you imagine the state of our roads today? We cannot commute, but our resources are moving out to build asphalt roads in other parts of the country. Are you going to abandon us because you want to balance your budget and reduce deficits? That you will not be bothered by the fact that some citizens of this country have lost their homes and property to the rains because the drainages are too small and silted, and that we need to spend money to rectify some of these defects which have created the problems for all because you want to reduce deficits? Mr. Minister, the “ecomini” is not judged only by the surpluses or deficits that are generated at any point in time. Government is the biggest spender in any “ecomini’ through many productive actions. If government decides not to spend but save its monies when the needs of the people are not being met, those savings will be of no consequence to the citizenry. Already, the banks are not giving out loans, not even overdrafts, shops are becoming emptier, we have gone back to the Treasury Bill ‘ecominy’ when you were at the Central Bank as the Boss. At the going interest rate of 28%, the banks feel very comfortable lending to government than to businesses and individuals for productive activities that lead to the growth of the ‘ecomini’. No wonder your government has targeted a lower GDP growth rate. You would rather keep your monies than invest. Indeed it makes sense for an investor who has GH¢200,000 to invest in Treasury Bills and collect GH¢56,000 per year as interest than to invest in an uncertain micro-economic environment. The people suffer when such investment decisions are taken by those who have the money to invest, because no jobs are created. When government can not procure crude oil for the country, the economy can not be on track. We are waiting to see what unfolds in the coming months. Source:Daily Guide