Policy Analyst at IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Selorm Branttie, has revealed that Ghana is currently at a point where state-owned enterprises have become reward mechanisms for party members.
Mr Branttie opined that a greater number of individuals appointed as executives of state-owned enterprises do not qualify to occupy those positions. However, due to their alliances and allegiance to political parties, he indicated that they are able to gain such jobs.
“We are at a point where state-owned enterprises are now just reward mechanisms for party people. You have CEOs being appointed to state agencies who have never had any kind of administrative leadership, even in community call centre. And these people are being given state organisations with these mandates and huge complements of staff. And the staffing is bloated usually with party members who have no obligation or responsibility towards the objectives of those state enterprises, but are only party people who are put there. And 90% of them spend all their time on social media, trying to either praise their parties or denigrate others who they see as being critical of the government”.
Selorm Branttie
Commenting on a statement by Dr Kwame Pianim, a renowned economist, which suggests that some state-owned enterprises should be let go off by the state, Mr Branttie concerted to the proposition. He expressed that a lot of these state-owned enterprises are “incurring huge losses”, engaged in fraud and leakages.
“A lot of these have been buried and are usually revealed only three or five years after, just so that we put these individuals who then turn around and use their position in these state-owned enterprises on their CVs as an excuse to enter mainstream politics… So, I am in full agreement. Let’s sell all those state-owned enterprises and de-emphasize that top heavy government approach to solving every problem in this country by just spending money”.
Selorm Branttie
Expectations ahead of Bawumia’s speech at TESCON conference
Touching on his expectations on the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s scheduled speech later today on the economic state of the country, Mr Branttie highlighted that he does not expect anything different beyond the same “rehashing” by government on economic matters.
Mr Branttie noted that citizens are at a point where they really need to know what the government or the economic team is doing to help rebound the economy. However, he emphasized that a lot of the focus has been on “government spending” and not enough effort put into“private capital generation” and how to bolster the private sector.
“To be honest, a lot of the narrative related to the economy from the government has basically been about blaming negative outlook on the COVID and the fact that we have not been able to raise much revenue because of pressures from the Ukraine war and post-COVID activity…”
Selorm Branttie
Mr Branttie expressed the need to encourage banks to give more loans to the private sector, a move he reckons could actually be the “positive shot in the arm” for the economy. The posturing of government, IMANI’s policy analyst revealed, is basically on revenue generation and revenue consolidation. This, he explained, is due to the fact that there is a creation of a “top heavy government policy”.
“… And it’s unprecedented that we have government spending on everything from feeding children, all the way to creating jobs and that is a recipe for disaster. If it’s more of that that we are going to hear, then it’s really not going to change anything or boost any kind of confidence in the economy. These micro pointers that they keep pointing to, do not reflect the reality on the ground”.
Selorm Branttie
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