The Vice-Presidential candidate of the Opposition New Patriotic Party is pressing on with his claims that government has borrowed $37 billion but can give evidence of $7billion worth of investment.
Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia says a statement issued by government Wednesday to respond to his claims was founded on propaganda and deceit.
Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah in a statement Wednesday said, “Government has noted a number of false and or misleading claims attributed to Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, the third time running mate to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer.”
He was reacting to comments made by Dr. Bawumia at an event on the Wa campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) early this week.
Dr. Bawumia said Ghanaians must reject the government’s claims that it has made massive investments in infrastructure across the country.
“First, If you sum the cost of all the loan-financed projects listed in the green book (even including those with artistic impressions, it is less than $7 billion. Meanwhile, the government has borrowed the equivalent of $37 billion so where is the rest of the money? Indeed, given the resources at its disposal one should expect at least four times the quantum of investment that the NDC claims to have undertaken”, he said.
Responding to him, Dr. Omane Boamah said, “Dr. Bawumia’s latest untruths is only a last-gasp effort to create doubts about the unprecedented investments made in all spheres of our national life by President John Dramani Mahama’s Government. It is borne out of a morbid fear that the overwhelming evidence provided in the 210-page book, shatters the many unsustainable falsehoods churned out by him, the NPP and their allies about the performance of President Mahama.”
He said Dr. Bawumia’s claim that “that this government has borrowed US$37 billion since 2009…is false and a desperate attempt to find basis for the flawed conclusions he churned out at the event.”
But the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana returned to the issue insisting government borrowed the equivalent of $37 billion dollars and failed to use the money judiciously.
He said, “What is clear to me (and confirms my long held suspicion) is that members of this government, handed the mandate to manage our destinies as a nation, do not read. Worse of all, as I said on 14th February, 2015, at a forum at the University for Development Studies, what is most unfortunate about this whole episode is the fact that the government doesn’t even seem to know how much it has borrowed.
source-myjoyonline.com
