Ghana’s Parliament’s Finance Committee Chairman, Kweku Kwarteng, has expressed confidence in the country’s ability to secure a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a timely manner.
However, concerns have been raised about the commitment of Ghana’s external creditors to support the country throughout the three-year programme.
Mr. Kwarteng has highlighted that these commitments are not legally binding and the fear of possible derailment by some bilateral donors is very palpable.
One of the key requirements for Ghana’s external debt restructuring was for the country to obtain the commitments of its external debtors to support it as it completed the three-year programme.
These commitments, while not direct reliefs, are indications of willingness to move forward with Ghana on its path to recovery.
Mr. Kwarteng emphasized that the success of the programme hinges on the actualization of these commitments.
The IMF is expecting to see the realization of the commitments before providing the second tranche of the deal.
This, he said, therefore, puts a significant challenge on Ghana’s bilateral partners, as they must follow through on their commitments to ensure that the programme is not derailed.
Speaking during an interview. Mr. Kwarteng highlighted the need for Ghana’s external creditors to stick to their commitments once the programme is finalized and underway.
According to the finance committee chairman, the commitments, while not legally binding, are necessary indications of the creditors’ willingness to support Ghana.
Mr. Kwarteng further noted that this is a technical matter and that Ghana had already ticked the box of having a good faith engagement with its private creditors.
Mr. Kwarteng remains optimistic about Ghana’s ability to secure the commitments it needs to proceed with the IMF deal. He assured that the boxes would be ticked, and all commitments would be realized.
Kweku Kwarteng Backs Call On Government To Plan Expenditures
More so, Mr. Kweku Kwarteng has disclosed his support on the call on government to cut down on expenditure.
According to him, despite the government recently passing three revenue measures, these revenue measures are a long way to translate into actual revenue, and it is not set in stone that the government’s revenue targets will be achieved.
He said, calls for government expenditure cuts have also been chorused by some government creditors at the ongoing IMF meeting in Washington, US, and this he believes is the right way to go.
“I agree, I agree that where we are, and the investors are telling us a bit of that. Some of our creditors are telling us that they also need us to consider expenditure cuts, and I support that call. And I think as government, I’m part of government, I think we should consider which areas of expenditure we can cut because whether we have gotten an IMF programme, as I indicated earlier, we would seek to get revenue from the revenue measures that we have deployed.
“If not for anything at all, we know that those revenue measures delayed. And when I was in the ministry, I was working with the GRA in respect of the revenues, and I know that revenue measures are not revenue. So you can have the measures, whether they’ll come in is another matter.”
Mr. Kweku Kwarteng
Mr. Kwarteng noted that while parliament has been supportive of the government to pass the revenue measures in order to secure an IMF deal, going forward, parliament will no longer act as a rubber stamp to the whims and caprices of the executive.
He stated that while parliament cannot be solely blamed for the current economic mishap, it takes part responsibility and assured the general public that the house, going forward, will do everything in its power to ensure that serious measures are taken to prevent a repeat of this economic meltdown in Ghana’s foreseeable future.
“We will do all we can to support those measures to succeed but where there’s a shortfall, we must immediately move to cut expenditure. And unless we do that, it will be business as usual, something that many of us going forward will not support.”
Mr. Kweku Kwarteng
