'Irresponsible, incompetent, lazy' govts blame predecessors – Fifi Kwetey

A former Deputy Finance Minister, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, has said the Akufo-Addo administration inherited a strong economy with two additional oil fields yet the government claims it inherited a weak economy.

The MP for Ketu South Constituency also said that the opposition National Democratic Congress' administration bequeathed an economy free from energy crisis to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

Speaking at the NDC’s forum on the 2020 budget statement and economic policy presented to Parliament by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta on 13 November 2019, Mr Kwetey said: “The government that has had the most solid economic legacy is the Nana Akufo-Addo government, so, for them to actually claim that they have inherited the greatest crisis is really a big surprise.”

In his opinion, “It is only an irresponsible, incompetent, lazy group of people who will blame their predecessors. We [Ghana] would have been in the high heavens if we in the NDC inherited these legacies.”

He continued: “John Mahama handed over to them two massive oil fields. In 2016, oil production was about 87000 barrels a day and today we are talking about almost 200,000 barrels a day.

“You have these handed over to you, yet you said you have inherited an economic mess. Meanwhile, your own GDP, today, is on the basis of those two oil fields that have been handed over to you. Since the 1980s, we have always known that every three or so years, we go through an energy crisis."

“For the first time in our history, the Mahama government handed over to Akufo-Addo a nation that has resolved this energy crisis for good."

“For the first time in our lifetime, we actually had enough power to be able to give electricity to industry and individuals yet our friends call this great legacy economic mess,” Mr Kwetey said.