Accra, Jan. 17, GNA - Members of the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) on Wednesday called on the Government to endeavour to fulfil its promise to Ghanaians as was contained in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) manifesto instead of using the devaluation of the cedi as a cheap propaganda enterprise.
Mr Bernard Mornah, a member of the CJA, who presented a statement during a press conference, said: "The CJA is convinced that the President John Kufuor administration is resorting to such cheap propagandist enterprises, because it has failed to deliver on its promises to the people."
He said in the manifesto presented to the people of Ghana for the Election 2000 the NPP promised to create 100,000 jobs in three months upon the assumption of power; curb rice imports then estimated at 120 million dollars per annum but which now stood at 450 million dollars per annum; abolish the cash and carry system in the health sector and boost local production of poultry among other things.
Mr Mornah said none of these promises have been kept and the masses were legitimately raising questions about the mandate they gave the NPP and that the CJA would continue to struggle with the people of Ghana against the social and economic hardship and for greater public accountability.
He said the Bank of Ghana, which had the responsibility for monetary policy issues, had stated that the re-denomination of the currency, to be operative from July 2007, was to knock off four zeros from the currency such that the present 10,000 cedis would be equivalent to the new GH 1.00 cedi.
Mr Mornah said the Bank of Ghana insisted in its public education programme that the real value of the cedi would not change with the re-denomination exercise and that a new GH 1.00 cedi would buy what the 10,000 cedis bought in all transactions with the main advantage being portability.
"Surprisingly, the President Kufuor Administration is trying very hard to turn this purely administrative economic measure into a huge propaganda blitz."
At the NPP's national conference in Koforidua on January 6, President Kufuor claimed that as a result of the prudent management of the economy, the value of the cedi had so appreciated that by July 2007, the cedi would exchange for the dollar at a rate of one to one which Mr Mornah said was false.
"This claim is false because what will exchange with the dollar at a rate of one to one is not the cedi currently in circulation but a new Ghana cedi to be introduced in July this year. Indeed one new Ghana cedi will be the equivalent of 10,000 cedis and if the President's claim is accepted it will even show a slight devaluation of the cedi against the dollar."
Mr Mornah said the timing of the re-denomination exercise was of a grave concern to the Committee especially when the Bank of Ghana had announced that Ghana was to join the Eco currency zone in 2009 barely two years after the new currency had become operational in addition to the Governor's inability to provide an estimate of how much it would cost to print and circulate.
He said the CJA knew that the strength of any currency was dependent on the level of production and productivity in a country and that it was strange that at a time when the country was undergoing power curtailment, unavailability of potable water with many industries collapsing, the Government was claiming that the economy had improved thus raising false expectations.
