Government ensuring fiscal discipline – Deputy Finance Minister

The Government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has put in place measures to ensure that the administration does not engage in fiscal indiscipline, Abena Osei Asare, Deputy Minister of Finance, has said.

Among some of the measures she mentioned included the enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act by parliament which in her view will ensure that the administration does not engage in fiscal indiscipline.

Ms Asare was reacting to the September report on Ghana by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to the effect that the current administration could win the next elections because of the fact that it has the safe pair of hands to manage the economy.

The EIU report however raised concerns about possible budget overruns for this year.

But the Deputy Finance Minister told Joy News on Thursday September 19 , 2019 that: “Measures have been already instituted to deal with any potential overruns.

“Here we are , two three years down the line, we are out of the IMF and we have put in checks and balances in place to see to it that we don’t go back to the IMF.

“One is the Fiscal Responsibility Act where parliament has passed the law that that we can’t go beyond five per cent of our deficits. All these things help us and put us in check.

“Secondly, we have formed partnerships, that is social partnership with labour, employers and government, that here we are, we believe we can be our own IMF.

“Let us come out with targets and policies that together we will work to achieve this. And once we achieve this we believe we can be our own IMF, we can act as a check on ourselves.”