GOVT URGED TO AVERT ANOTHER ECONOMIC CRISES

By Jeorge Wilson Kingson, Ho
Government has been urged to take appropriate measures and formulate the right policies to ensure that in the unforeseen event of another global economic crisis as experienced recently its impact on the country will not be severely felt.

Deputy Secretary-General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Dr. Yaw Baah, who sounded this warning, last week however gave government high marks for introducing strong fiscal policy measures in dealing with the crisis.

He praised policies such as the freeze on public sector employment, the reduction in the number of ministries, and the rationalization of subsidies to State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) as well as the rationalization of public sector wages and other expenditures including postponing the implementation of the single spine salary structures as very good moves that will bring the economy back on track.

He on the other hand slammed the current administration for its decision to go back to the Britton Wood institutions cup in hand saying it was a trivial decision. “I will advice the government to do anything to recover the economy but go back to the IMF. You see, the IMF controls you and forces you to listen to them and in such situations your options are limited and because you are the one who came begging you have no choice”

Dr. Baah, stated this last week at Ho when he addressed financial and economic journalists at a capacity building workshop on the aftermath of the 2008 financial and economic crisis. The workshop which was sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung was under the theme “Beyond the 2008 financial end economic crisis: Assessing government response to the crisis in Ghana”

According to him governments all over the world which experienced the financial crisis including third world countries have started putting in place measures to ensure that the impact of future crisis is not as severe as that of 2008 and Ghana must not be different.

“The IMF is synonymous with short term measures but Ghana’s problem is long term. As long as we keep depending on the IMF to give us short time measures for our long time problems we will never get there. Ghanaians would have been better off without the IMF. Ghana is still waiting for that bold leader who will take drastic decisions to change the paradigm” Dr. Baah stated.

Participants at the two day workshop in a communiqué issued after the programme urged government to formulate policies to protect the economy and review policies that are not helpful to the Ghanaian financial system such as efforts at increasing revenue mobilization and making the private sector more competitive.

They urged government to develop negotiating capacity to effectively engage development partners on issues of national interest and further develop and strengthen institutions to deliver efficiently on government policies and programmes devoid of corruption.

The group identified sectors of the economy such as the agricultural sector, education sector as areas that government must focus spending its revenue effectively on so as to add value to primary agro products.

“Government should pursue the ECOWAS and African Union agenda by promoting inter regional trade, use of common currency in Africa, the protocols of free movement of people across region, and undertake strategic and active industrialization programmes and policies for the long term transformation of the economy by revamping collapsed state industries.” The communiqué stated.

They also urged government to effectively regulate the financial institutions and the financial market to protect the financial sector and the economy as a whole from future financial shocks and also adopt long term strategies to deal with structural problems such as prioritizing and developing the energy sector to be more efficient and effective.