By the Grace of God I entered faculty of law, Legon in the year 1974 and began third year in October 1976. Professors Aki Sawyerr and Kwesi Botchwey introduced a brand new course called ?International? Trade and Investment Law?.
It was optional, and I did it.
That course opened my mind more than any other course? that I had ever studied? in my educational? run through. I remembered the basics they taught us when I read in the pages of the ?Ghanaian Times? of Monday 11 August 2014 an article entitled ?IMF ready to help address economic challenges????.. a team of experts to visit Ghana next month?
I strongly recommend that you look for that story at page 26? of that issue and read it ? very interesting.
Our two lecturers told us that the very first thing you MUST remember in life is that NOBODY HAS AN OBLIGATION? to help you ? period. Your biological parents ? yes, but even that, up to a point.
So, why do you think a whole nation, like Canada or Belgium or Australlia ? why should they come to Ghana, like father Christmas, to come and HELP you? Do you think they do NOT have problems?
I was telling a friend, the other day that the Japanese, the Canadians, the Americans ? they elect? their Governments to improve the quality of their lives, not to dole out the taxpayer?s money as GIFTS? to anybody. When their Governments present Annual Budget to Parliament or Congress there is no provision for AID or HELP or ASSISTANCE? to anybody.
After the second world war, following the collapse of the European economy, due to ravages of the war,? the major powers came together to create institutions to stabilise their economies and ensure uninterrupted growth, and the result was the creation of the Bretton Woods Institutions ? notably? the ?World Bank? and INTERNATIONAL MONETA RY? FUND.
Right now, Ghana has a big financial crisis ? we are told that in the history of our nation, our currency the CEDI is now the WORST performing currency? in the world.
We need help, not tomorrow, next week or next month, but now, today. We need to improve our liquidity? situation ? we need raw cash in the economy but there is none. At all. Investors have lost confidence in the economy, Ghanaians? abroad are NOT sending dollars home and worse of all rich Ghanaians locally are sending the money out. We are in crisis.
So we go to individual countries ? USA, Canada, Britain, France, Japan????. They ALL say go to IMF ? if IMF recommends a bail out, then we will do so.
With great reluctance, swallowing pride, you go to IMF, and, reader IMF has not got a fat purse sitting there doing nothing for them to dole out monies to you????.no no no??? it is the taxes of other nations that IMF is going to recommend to their Governments to divert some for business ON CREDIT in Ghana !!!!!!!
But even before they do that, as standard practice, ?let us send a team of ?experts? to go and see what the problem really is ???
Most interesting indeed.
As at today, you will be shocked to hear that US Government has even more accurate data on Ghana than? the Government itself. In this age of internet and e-mails, information super highway, what is it about Ghana that IMF? does not already know? They even have a Resident Representative here in Ghana !!!!
But still, the experts must come.
So, some young twenty something year old first degree holders will come, of course at our cost, live in Movenpick Ambassador Hotel for a few days look at a few date and fly back to New York ? then present ?their conditions?.
There so-called ?conditions?, very standard, and absolutely NON NEGOTIABLE were described by President Nkrumah of Ghana as ?offensive? conditions.
They include but are NOT limited to a demand by IMF that INCREASE all taxes, REMOVE all subsidies on basics like fuel water electricity, OPEN up the economy? for m ore international participation, REMOVE all internal conditions????..
This is what is called the ?bitter pill,? ?biting the bullet?, and no serious people oriented Government will tolerate such harsh policies.
Let me try to explain why these policies are harsh or as Nkrumah puts it OFFENSIVE Conditions.
When you INCREASE taxes, you overburden the people, or the taxpayer. If I am working, as a lawyer, paying for instance 10 cedis,? then you say you have increased the tax to 15 cedis, what you are saying to me indirectly is that I should INCREASE my fees, so? that I can maintain my level of expenditure, but if you increase fess,? then how many people can afford your services? Rather, REDUCE taxes, so? that the cost of doing business wil go down, and goods and services will be CHEAPER, accessible to wider majority, to make life BETTER for all.
Why do Governments SUBSIDISE staples? Because the central function? of Government is to make like better for the voters. If the price of water? is 5 cedis, use part of our taxes to support the production of water, and reduce it to 3 cedis ? but if you say REMOVE subsidise, what you are saying indirectly is to put? the full cost to the voter, who is already paying higher taxes ? that makes life more burdensome, and difficult.
When George Bush was US President he forced the developing countries to remove subsidies on agricultural products, then he voted 200 million dollars to subsidies agricultural? farmers in the USA !!!!!!
They say remove all internal controls and open up the economy ? in other words KILL local industries, allow every junk to be imported into? the economy, develop taste for foreign goods and create employments for foreign companies while closing down factories in the local economy.
Reader, which serious country will accept ANY of these conditions?
But there are strikes by teachers, nurses, and doctors, and drivers ? the Government is desperate, needs cash to SURVIVE, so in a desperate move Government calls on the? people to BITE the bullet, tighten your belts, things would be better, the darkest hour is before dawn, so these harsh conditions are accepted and forced down? the throats of the people???
Government then sends a high powered delegation to IMF telling them that we have implemented the conditions so give us the bail out, as promised. Very well, they are told. Let us hold a ?Donors Conference? ? at which Finance Ministers and corporate governors from all the leading subscribing countries to IMPF will meet to discuss ?how much?.
It is NOT that each country will decide how much CASH they should give to Ghana? to use in salvaging? the economy ? rather, it is what is the financial COST to Ghana of the goods and services that they are going to provide to Ghana, of course, at very exorbitant rates ON CREDIT.
They will euphemistically call it AID ? though in actual? fact it is GIGANIC OPEN RAPE of your resources, human and material.
Meanwhile, by the time actual inflow touches ground, more than ten months have passed, and? the situation is WORSE, and? the cycle begins again. Ignore IMF ? go to Japan, Canada or UK ? no, seek the recommendation of IMF, then finally with great reluctance, you go to IMF????. the same cycle ongoing. I learnt this I n 1977 !!!!!!
So, then how do you exorcise this cancer? How do you come out of this debt tray? How do we confront? the menace of IMF?
The very first major step is that CHECK YOURSELF. Somebody was saying the other day that USA, a country with a population of 200 million has only 24 Ministers of State, but? Ghana, with a population of? 25 million has nearly ONE HUNDRED Ministers !!!! it is TOO MUCH. The cost of Government, in Ghana is TOO BIG.
Check yourself.
Why should Government appointees LIVE in Hotels? Why? Why should we buy? fleet of exotic luxury 4×4 vehicles f? or Government functionaries?
Take control of the economy. We are not talking socialism or communism or capitalism ? no, practical common sense issues ? why REPATRIATE cash from Ghana? Why not spend in Ghana? Why buy TOOTHPICK from outside when we have bamboo here? Why import onions, and tomatoes? Control the economy. Keep people? in factories.
I agree with Dr. Abu Sakara? – don?t increase taxes, rather, the low level ones ? collect them.
When I was Deputy? Minister at Local Government in 2001 I was told that the basic national levy per person ?2001 ? was One Thousand Cedis today?s TEN PESEWAS.
Assuming that we are even paying that 10 pesewas per head ? 25 million 10 pesewas is how much? Is it not money?
The other d ay I was saying in Parliament that all over the world, the MOST FREE? country is USA ? you can do anything you like there. So, get up and go to USA and say that my name is Kofi Bentum from Ghana I want to open an insurance company in the USA ? I hear you are a free country.
They will tell you, very well, you are most welcome. Signe here. Bring that paper. Get licence from here. Do this. Do that. Tax certificate.Clearance ?this that ? THREE years will pass and you are still struggling ? you will give up.
By contrast, any long nosed joker enters Ghana with a brief case then they sell prime land to him, look at the Malaysians and how they came to grab Ghana films, made so much money and left. Look at? prime land ? then they use our own Cedis, our taxes, they use SSNIT? to prefinance, then they repatriate the profits?????and you want IMF to do what?
Written by
Nkrabeah Effah Dartey
