Ankomah criticises government's decision on HIPC

Mr Owusu Ankomah, an independent Presidential aspirant of the last December polls, has criticised the government's decision to join the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

He noted that prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank over the last two decades have largely failed to bring the anticipated relief to the country's economy and instead led to "economic suffocation and the strangulation of the people".

Mr Ankomah, who was interacting with newsmen in Kumasi, therefore, asked the government to adopt prudent fiscal policies to get the nation quickly out of the HIPC.

While conceding that the economy is in bad shape, he was of the conviction that "the situation is far from hopeless".

He said, "with the right economic policy direction, honest and transparent leadership, the removal of waste and corruption from the system as well as discipline, dedication and hard work on the part of the citizenry, there is no way the economy could not be put back on the path of recovery".

Mr Ankomah pointed out that Ghana with its vast and rich human and material resources is not poor and that corruption and mismanagement have been its bane.

He, therefore, welcomed President John Agyekum Kufuor's declaration of zero tolerance of corruption and asked that "solutions to the country's problems should be found internally".