Togbe Afede lists ‘rots’ in Akufo-Addo’s govt in new book, ‘Our Self-Inflicted Monumental Economic Crisis’

Agbogbomefia of the Asogli state, Togbe Afede XIV, has slammed the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government over the current state of Ghana’s economy.

In his new book, ‘Our Self-Inflicted Monumental Economic Crisis’, Togbe Afede said that the economic challenges the country is facing now are largely due to the poor economic management of the Akufo-Addo government.

He added that it is clear that the government implemented majority of its policies and programmes without properly thinking through or properly planning them before implementation which is why the country finds itself in the current economic mess.

He went on to list self-inflecting actions and decisions taken by the Akufo-Addo government which have landed the country in trouble as follows:

The large increase in the number of ministries and appointees in 2017 was, invariably a waste, because it did not make any impact, let alone produce the promised outcomes.

Political motivations dictated reckless increases in the size of our parliament, with little or no thought about the extra costs, i.e., salaries, multiple ex-gratia payments, Common Fund allocations, etc., etc.

Payment to directors and employees of non-existent Keta Port, monies lost in the failed award of ECG to PDS, abandoned projects, sale of government vehicles and their replacement after four years or less, and expenditure on new voters’ registration, have been wasteful.

Similarly wasteful have been payment of end-of-service benefits and all manner of allowances and perks to some state employees, huge convoys, unnecessary expensive travel for mostly unproductive seminars and conferences (e.g., the reported 322 people who attended the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt).

Our SOEs are poorly supervised. That is why they build edifices they do not need, spend almost all the revenues they generate, and pay very little or no dividends to the state. That is why their executives seize every opportunity to travel abroad, most of the time needlessly. And that is why they have policies that provide for the payment to redundant workers as much as four (4) months’ salary for every year they have worked, even when their enterprises provide Tier 3 pension contributions.

The so-called banking sector clean-up, involving the closure of some banks, was a reckless unplanned move that imposed unnecessary cost on the state. We are yet to see the cost-benefit analysis of that exercise. Meanwhile, we are paying the price for all the recklessness.

Read the full book below: