The Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Samuel George, has lamented that the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, will present a budget written by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Ghanaians.
According to the Ningo-Prampram MP, the budget has no substance because everything it contains has been scripted thus, the finance minister is not in charge of the economy.
Speaking on TV3, the MP said “he is coming to read what the IMF has written for him. You have a Finance Minister who has no control over the budget. Once he has no control over the budget, he is coming to read what the IMF has written for him; there is no substance that you can expect.”
He noted that the government will cut down expenses that benefit the citizens but increase expenses that benefit the presidency.
“The IMF is known for one thing: austerity, and so we should expect that they will tell the government to cut down on expenditure, which means that critical infrastructure that we need, like roads, education, and hospitals, will have to it cut down. Don’t expect the government to cut down on their travel expenses. So they are going to cut what benefits the public; they won’t cut what benefits the president and his appointees.”
Ofori-Atta will be presenting the budget statement and economic policy of the government in Parliament today, Wednesday, November 15, 2023.
