OPINION: Budget Of Reality Tomorrow -

By Kofi Coomson (Accra)

The Budget, that single statement of Government's intent for the next twelve months, may be out tomorrow if last minute fine tuning is completed, and Chronicle learns that the Minister of Finance, Hon. Osafo Maafo, may have nothing in his brand new portmanteau to offer, except plenty of bitter capsules that Ghanaians may have to swallow with no sweeteners.

A lot of hair-tearing has gone on and minds have been taxed, including that of former NPP man turned Atta-Mills 'adviser', Mr. Kwame Pianim, the man whose pragmatism and depth have earned him some respect in certain circles, but only the cold reality of the level of impoverishment and the NDC's legacy appears to be the grim reality that stares Osafo Maafo in the face.

He will certainly be wearing a mournful expression tomorrow morning as he takes the hot seat and announces to expectant Ghanaians that only projects that are in the pipeline would continue. Yesterday, the former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Selormey, publicly warned that the NPP government should halt scrutinising reports of wrongdoing in the acquisition of properties like the Presidential jet and just concentrate on resolving the problems that confront the country.

It was an ironic twist, especially when one conducts investigations into Victor's ?600 million deals with SSNIT in a real estate deal in Accra that yielded huge losses in the books of SSNIT but beautiful properties for Selormey, who happens to be one of the longest serving Board members of SSNIT. A team of high level officials from the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) has been in the country over the last fortnight poring over figures and indices that may offer a breather for the tough decisions and tough choices that confront Mr. J.H. Mensah, Osafo Maafo and their team.

External inflows that are expected to plug balance of payment deficits plus internally generated funds from taxes still leave a huge gap that firmly establishes Ghana as virtually bankrupt, and that may fuel the debate to the point where it is almost a foregone conclusion that Ghana would accept the HIPC initiative in spite of the optimism expressed by the President in his Tuesday March 6 address.

Chronicle learnt yesterday that Osafo Maafo barely managed to wave off IMF recommendation that the Value Added Tax (VAT) be hiked to 20 per cent from the current 12.5 percent. There is still a whole lot of mess in the system that should require bravery to confront and transparency to convince Ghanaians of the extent of rot that existed before they may have the stomach to go along with the bitter medication.

The feeling that the NPP administration is dealing with kid gloves or overlooking and sometimes keeping some more rogues in the system is eating up even some MPs and sections of the public. National Lotteries, AFGO, SSNIT, SIC, GNPC are just some of the examples.