By Seth Eyiah
Former President John Mahama has called on Parliament to pass legislation to prevent the collateralization of statutory funds. This is because the wanton collateralization has been unhelpful.
Speaking on October 27, 2022 on “Building The Ghana We Want” in Accra, Mr. Mahama said collaterizing statutory funds limits the financial space, including GETFund and the District Assemblies Common Fund.
He said the Government should de-securitize these funds and add them to the public debt as part of the discussions on debt restructuring.
In the estimation of Mr. Mahama, if the proceeds due ESLA, GETFund, Road Fund among others are freed from the burden and IPP payments are re-negotiated, government would have access to a total of about 16 billion cedis in 2023, 17.6 billion in 2024, and 19.4 billion in 2025 from these funds alone.
This, he pointed out, would significantly ease the cash-crunch, which has crippled many sectors, resulting in government’s inability to meet such basic obligations as supplying food to secondary schools and providing textbooks for basic schools.
”The NDC is ready and willing to share practical steps that will bring the economy back on track when invited by the Government”, he posited.
The Former President attributed the country’s economic situation to high public debt and budget deficit.
Former President Mahama also suggested that the Government restructure the country’s debt but not to worsen the already precarious economic situation Ghanaians are facing.
He said debt and deficit have undermined confidence in the economy and created very serious solvency problems for the government. This, he said, has set the country up on a vicious cycle of more debt. Therefore, tackling these twin challenges would mark the beginning of the much-needed recovery.
