Be truthful on economic data – Ricketts Hagan to govt

Former Deputy Minister of Finance Kweku Ricketts-Hagan has called on the government and the Ministry of Finance to come clean in their dealings with the International Monitory Fund (IMF).

The Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South in the Central Region said this government has not been truthful to the people of Ghana but rather hiding behind the fact that most people do not understand economic figures to mislead the nation.

“Do not undermine the minds of people due to lack of understanding or misinterpretation of economic data by the average Ghanaian. It is time for the government to come clean with the Ghanaian people and admit to this deception,” the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP said in an interview with Onua News Tuesday.

The MP was responding to the controversy which suggests that government has shared different macroeconomic data with Ghanaians and the IMF on the state of the nation’s economy.

The former Central Region Minister described the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Dr. Ernest Addison and the entire Economic Management Team headed by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as a “den of liars” who have cooked, manipulated economic data and indicators to deceive and conceal from Ghanaians the state of the economy.

The opposition has claimed since 2017 that government has been untruthful on data it shares between Ghanaians and the IMF on the state of the economy.

Mr. Ricketts-Hagan said “we in the minority have been saying for some time now that economic figures being churned out by the NPP government were cooked. And we have challenged these numbers time and time again in the last 3 years”.

He has advised the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana not to try to belittle the intelligence of Ghanaians.

The former Deputy Trade and Industry Minister said the Finance Minister should appear before Parliament to answer some questions on IMF.

“We call on the Finance Minister to Parliament, to answer some questions. I think he has some explanation to do. This is a punitive behaviour and I think the Finance Minister should at least be sanctioned,” he concluded.