NPP did not promise not to borrow – Baako challenges NDC claims

Sunday, June 16, 2019 Policy

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-06-16

Abdul-Malik Kwaku Baako, a veteran journalist, defended the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government over a controversial national debt issue.

According to the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), in the run-up to the 2016 elections, which brought the NPP to power, the party has pledged never to borrow money. to be elected to power.

Alfan Suhuyini, a member of Tamale North's Parliament, asked the news channel on Saturday to badert his claim that the former NDC administration was justified in its prudent debt portfolio.

Mr Suhuyini tweeted that he would have said posted by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia before the NPP's victory.

However, Kwaku Baako, editor of the newspaper New Crusading Guide, challenged the authenticity of the Tweet.

"I do not think Dr. Bawumia has ever made such comments, this tweet could not have come from him because it's virtually impossible for any administration to not borrow a bit." This tweet that Suhuyini quotes is about Of doubtful validity, "Kwaku Baako said.

The minority in Parliament criticized the administration headed by Nana Akufo-Addo for what she described as an unprecedented level of borrowing.

According to them, the latest report of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana estimates that the current public debt amounts to nearly 200 billion ¢ at the end of the first quarter of 2019.

The NPP administration insisted that the loans it contracted were approved by Minority.

At a press conference, the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said recently: "With regard to external borrowing, all these loans are approved by Parliament in accordance with the law." Article 181 of the 1992 Constitution and Articles 55, 56 and 57 of the Law. " Law on Financial Management, Law 921 to which the minority is a party. You can add up all the loans this administration has made to Parliament and it will not cost $ 80 billion.

"Indeed, if there was a loan list totaling 80 billion ¢, you would imagine that the minority will raise it now. The reason our stock of debt will be about $ 80 billion today is that it is a nominal stock of public debt and that number includes a number of things. Old loans that are currently disbursed under the mandate of this administration add to the outstanding public debt. This does not mean that our administration has gone to borrow. "