Corruption costs Ghana more than the $3bn it is seeking from IMF – Dr Ali-Nakyea
A lecturer at the University of Ghana School of Law is worried about the imprudence that surrounds government expenditure in the country.
According to Dr Abdallah Ali-Nakyea, judicious spending could have saved the country many funds to the extent that government would not need support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He alluded to the revelation in 2018 when the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Rev. Richard Quayson revealed that the country loses more than $3 billion every year through corruption.
Coincidentally, it is about the same amount that the Finance Minister is seeking to get from the IMF in the ongoing talks.
“The report of CHRAJ and Ghana Integrity Initiative exist telling us that we lose over $3 billion every year to corruption. That is the same amount we are going to the IMF for,” he said.
Ali-Nakyea was speaking at the ICAG Round Table Meeting on Tuesday, November 8 which was aired on Joy FM.
The programme was on the theme, ‘Managing IMF expectation and Ghana’s economy: the way forward.’
The law lecture insisted that reducing the loopholes in expenditure will decelerate the widening debt deficit that the country has been suffering over the past few years.
“So that is what I see about trying to hold the wide deficit. Let’s be prudent in our spending.”
Ghana is currently at the doors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a possible $3 billion bailout amid intensifying hardship, skyrocketing fuel prices, a rising cost of living and a depreciating cedi.
Source: Ghana News
