We've Challenges In Almost Every Sector; But Not In Distress

Felix Kwakye-Ofosu, a member of the Communication Team of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) says though the economy needs a major boost in all sectors, he believes the current administration has made tremendous strides in alleviating the economic problems confronting Ghanaians as compared to the efforts by previous governments.

He thus strongly believes initiatives being rolled out by the Mahama-led NDC government will help address the challenges facing the nation.

Contributing to the panel discussion programme, "Alhaji Alhaji” on Radio Gold on Saturday, Felix Kwakye said the Mills-Mahama government has worked assiduously to improve the economy and therefore trusts the President's commitment to enhancing progress of the nation.

Before the introduction of the Single Spine Salary Scheme (SSSS), government expended about 2.5 billion cedis on the public sector wages, but according to him, the implementation of the scheme saw government’s expenditure in the public sector hike up to an amount of GHC 8 billion which meant that a huge chunk of revenue is exhausted in the payment of wages and salaries.

However, government, he said, is adopting new strategies to enhance productivity and ensure a high improvement in the working condition of public sector workers.

He explained that in as much as government is committed to making the public sector a lucrative venture for the Ghanaian citizenry, the workers are also expected to shun certain practices which may cripple the advancement of the sector.

According to him, public servants sometimes lack working ethics which are vital to the success of the sector.

Nonetheless, he outlined some measures undertaken by government to generate revenues in order to ensure a booming economy.

“If you look at the budget statement; the supplementary budget and indeed government financial report over the period, 2012/2013, there has been a tremendous increase in the amounts of revenue that government generated. The last figure I saw, pegged it at almost GHC 16 billion [collected revenue]. And the Ministry of finance had to push these revenue agencies very, very hard. In fact, they missed their target but by a very small margin indeed. So, a lot is being done in terms of revenue collection except that our wage bill is simply too high. So, what do we do as a nation to ensure that we achieve equilibrium between enhanced salaries and a decent standard of life for the entiety of our population?”

“We have suffered some imbalances. In otherwords, a large chunk of what we earn as a nation in terms of revenue, 60.9% or 61% goes into the payment of these salaries. The President was simply making the point that this has stifled government’s ability to make investment in other critical sectors…in infrastructure, in social services, energy, agriculture…It also does not mean that our economy is collapsing.” he inferred from President Mahama’s nation address.

He continued that “Indeed, we have challenges in almost every other sector but it cannot be argued that we are in distress everywhere. If you look at our education sector, there has been massive improvement upon the situation that we inherited. Look at the figures. Look at the enrolment figures; there are 5 million pupils in basic education, that is 25% of our population. About 20% of school children who should be in school are outside of the educational bracket but it is a much better situation than it was previously. There were times where 60% of people who should be in school were outside.”

He therefore debunked claims that the economy is in a state of despondency since to him, the Mahama-led government is making frantic efforts to put the country in good shape.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana