Mr Isaac Adongo, Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, has called the bluff of the Vice President of Ghana, Dr Muhamadu Bawumia, after his lecture on the economy in TESCON programme at Cape Coast. He thus, berated the Vice President saying he is misleading Ghanaians on economic issues.

In a statement, the Bolgatanga Central lawmaker said, real practice over the last couple of years, has exposed Dr Bawumia’s lack of appreciation and technical deficiency in risk-based public debt management.

Meanwhile, in his view, Dr Bawumia is “cunningly misleading people to engage in a less important variable of debt sustainability and risks of debt dynamics to the neglect of major drivers of quality of public debt and their impact on debt sustainability, fiscal risks and external vulnerabilities.”

Mr Adongo threw further shots at the Vice President saying he is trying hard in an “absurd manner to justify the mess he has run Ghana’s economy into, in a similar fashion to his ill-fated attempt to run away from his technically deficient analysis of exchange rate developments and the fundamentals of the economy.”

Bawumia Touted His Government’s Achivements

However, Dr Bawumia admitted in his speech that the public debt is high and Ghana is at high risk of debt distress. But, Dr Bawumia sought to imply that his government has borrowed more prudently and sustainably.

“We are the best managers of the economy. We have managed the debt situation better than the NDC. It is prudent debt management that leads to: Low inflation, stable currency, low interest rates, economic growth and improvements in standard of living of Ghanaians.”
Dr Bawumia

But in a response to his claims, the NDC firebrand chided Dr Bawumia and requested him to “stop the naivety and classical economic theories.”

Mr Adongo also noted that Dr Bawumia’s technically flawed analysis has misinformed Ghanaians. He also stated that Dr Bawumia is now finding succour in inflation and other variables to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians.

“Dr. Bawumia is so naive. Will he use inflation and exchange rate to pay for the debt? I am in pains to see how unsustainable debt levels that pose high risks of default could achieve any of those variables he listed above.

“Real practice over the last couple of years, has exposed Dr Bawumia’s lack of appreciation and technical deficiency in risk-based public debt management. Hence his consistent recourse to rate of debt accumulation and debt to GDP, even though important, are intermediate variables to measure the performance of risk-based debt management.”
Dr Bawumia

The Reason Behind the Exchange Rate Movement

Mr Adongo further stated that Dr. Bawumia has attributed exchange rate movements to the fundamentals of the economy without due consideration for exogenous shocks.

“When COVID-19 struck, forex demand pressures reduced significantly because Ghanaians were not importing due to the lockdown etc., leading to relatively lower demand for the dollar. The exchange rate became stable as a result and Dr Bawumia attributed this COVD-19 induced stability to what he described as prudent economic management but dishonestly refuses to accept that the same prudent economic management should be blamed for the 0.4% growth of the economy in 2020.”
Mr Adongo

While the Vice President touted his government’s achievements and boasted that it’s the best managers of the economy, Mr Adongo held a different view and asserted that Dr Bawumia has obviously mismanaged Ghana into a debt trap, high fiscal risks, external vulnerabilities and extreme hardships.