Stephen Amoah, former Deputy Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso, says Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson is performing creditably so far, but insists the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration cannot yet be said to have outperformed the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
According to Dr Amoah, the current administration inherited an economy that had already begun recovering under the IMF-supported programme introduced by the former government led by President Nana Akufo-Addo.
“Ato is doing well, but they are not better than NPP,” he said during an interview on Citi FM.
Using a medical analogy to explain his point, Dr Amoah said the previous administration had already stabilised the economy before leaving office, although some lingering effects of the crisis remained.
“What Ato and the NDC inherited is just like somebody contracting an infection with symptoms of pale eyes, pale palms, unable to eat, and then a medical doctor came in to manage it to the extent that the infection vanished,” he explained.
“However, the pale palms, eyes and other symptoms would have to take some time. That is where Ato and the NDC took over.”
The former deputy finance minister questioned what measurable economic impact the current administration has made so far, arguing that it is still too early to fully assess its performance.
“Even now, can you measure NDC’s finished work or product that can be measured as a percentage of our GDP?” he asked.
Dr Amoah also claimed that the government’s spending during its first year in office was limited because many approvals were still pending before Parliament, while the administration was also complying with IMF conditions inherited from the previous government.
“Ato has now started spending. The whole of last year, they didn’t spend; they were vetting, a lot of the things had not come to Parliament for approval, and they also came to meet conditionalities,” he stated.
He further called for patience in evaluating the government’s expenditure, saying future Auditor-General reports would provide a clearer assessment of the administration’s fiscal performance.
“Do you know how much they have spent so far on the emoluments of their appointees? We don’t know, so let’s wait and see,” he added.