Government is hiding Ghana's real debt stock - Minority

The Minority in parliament

The Minority caucus in parliament in a addressing the press said government has managed to hide some of the debt stock through SSNIT.

The Minority in parliament is accusing the governing of hiding some of Ghana's debt pile to make the country's financial books look good.

The Minority at press conference today  responded to President Mahama’s comment of the debt situation in Cape Coast and in addition made more accusations.



President Mahama speaking in Cape Coast said “we have a debt ceiling with the IMF and it was mistaken to mean that we are highly indebted. In the new calculation of our public debt, all the debt of state-owned enterprises has been added to the public debt. It didn’t use to be so, formerly you calculate the debt the country owes separately from state-owned enterprises”, he explained on Monday.

The Minority caucus in parliament, responding to these statements in a press statement said government has managed to hide some of the debt stock through SSNIT.

“It also emerged from the review that the government at the need of December 2014 securitized its arrears to SSNIT to the tune of nine hundred and thirteen million cedis, Parliament was nit uninformed and have not been up to date as a result of the behind the curtain securitization of the arrears the fiscal deficit for 2014 has been revised upward from 9.4 percent to 10.3 percent of GDP.” A statement by the minority said.

According to Citi Fm’s reporter Richard Sky, the Minority spokesperson on finance Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei said government has asked SSNIT to pay for social security contributions of government workers causing that that debt.

The Minority said this action by government has caused “double digits fiscal deficits for three back to back years which have never been seen before in this country.”

The Minority therefore wants parliament to probe the securitization of the arrears which did not have a parliamentary approval.

Source,pulse.com.gh