The General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Titus Beyuo, has stated that it is rather unfortunate that public sector workers are expected to give in to government’s claim that there is no money to fully meet their demands amidst the ongoing economic crisis.
He indicated that the government’s failure to fully diagnose the cause of the ongoing economic crisis in the country and further call for a national dialogue in an effort to find a solution, is the barrier that is preventing public sector workers from reasoning with government.
According to him, calls for public sector labour unions to reason with government due to the harsh economic conditions in the country are entirely misplaced and should be aborted.
Speaking in an interwiew, Dr Beyuo stated that the lack of a conclusive diagnosis on what is ailing the economy has fuelled the public sector’s loss of confidence in the government to meet their demands.
“As I sit here today if you ask me what the cause of our current economic crisis is, I don’t have an answer. I’ll be worried if government doesn’t also have an answer because the explanation of the Ukraine war, Russia whatever doesn’t ‘hold water’. Because if you follow how we cite our clinical evidenc, if the etiology is similar, the symptomatology should be similar.
“If it is Russia-Ukraine, then it should be the same thing across the globe. Our situation is worse than almost every other country. So I want government to give us a definitive diagnosis, what is wrong? What caused it? And then now call on us to come and reason.”
Dr Beyuo
He further opined that while it is being peddled that the wages and salaries of public sector workers are draining the national coffers, the largest expenditure of the government is loan repayment.
“Your assertion for us to reason with government that they cannot find salary to pay, doesn’t hold water. Why do I say so? Because the largest expenditure on government now is not wages and salaries, I made this statement somewhere this year that they keep letting all of us believe that it is the public sector employees that are draining this government or the country of its resources.
“We have borrowed money excessively, others have said it’s reckless; I’m not an economist so I cannot use the term but excessively. Our largest expenditure is on loan repayment. Could that be the etiology or the cause of our problem? Has anybody diagnosed what the problem is first of all to ask us to help solve that problem?
Dr Beyuo
Call For Government To Initiate Dialogue On Ailing Economy
Dr. Beyuo joined calls for government to initiate a public dialogue to interrogate the cause of Ghana’s ailing economy and what solutions are available for the government.
He stated that this should be done before public sector workers are called to reason with government.
“It is the reason why others are asking for second opinion. Because if you cannot make the diagnosis, can you enlarge the set of doctors that will come in to make the diagnosis? Could we have a nationwide dialogue for people to help make the diagnosis?
“What caused the problem? It is definitely not Russia-Ukraine, it is definitely not Covid, something caused this and may have been exacerbated by these two factors. Somebody must tell us what has caused it and ask the nation to join in finding a solution after we have identified the cause.”
Dr Beyuo
Until then, the Ghana Medical Association is asking for the conditions of service to be improved taking into consideration the current state of the economy and the fast depreciating cedi.
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