Sarpong, Justice
My fellow citizens, there is something going on in Ghana that your President is not telling you and that is; GHANA IS BROKE,in layman's terms which our financial Experts will kindly refer to as the 'COUNTRY IS STRAPPED FOR MONEY OR CASH' and that is why President Mahama sent special delegation to China to beg the Chinese to release the 3 billion dollar loan which has been held up for reasons only known to Mahama and his NDC clueless administration. What is so annoying about this NDC administration and its members is that, they have no shame talking about the khebab and the drinks they served after the State of the Nation address accusing NPP members for partaking in it without realising how insensitive they are when some citizens of Ghana are having a hard time getting one meal a day, these people were talking about the party they held after the state of the nation's address. On February 26th, we read in the forum this story about President Mahama going to slash some benefits to government officials. Now they are blaming the single salary spine Scheme(SSSS) for the problems confronting the country, a policy the same Mahama and his NDC used as an achievement during the 2012 campaign. How can you increase the government expenditure from 2.5 billion to 7.5 billion without corresponding productivity and call it a successful policy? Now the chickens have come home to roost and we should gird our loins for the hard times ahead.
"President Slashes Executive Freebies…. As Wages & Salaries Hit GHC7.5bn
"The biggest fiscal challenge facing Ghana currently has to do with misalignment of the expenditure categories in the budget namely, emoluments (i.e., wages, salaries and allowances), goods and services (including debt service), and investment or capital expenditure."
The true picture of the situation is worse than the President is letting out. If you combine the servicing of the national debt, goods and services, that consumes about 90% of our national budget of 13 billion dollars a year which leaves us only about 1.3 billion dollars for development of infrastructure and that is paltry and pathetic for a country of 25 million people. The normal percentage is 30 to 35% for these expendictures and 65% to 70% for developmental projects instead of the paltry 10% by Mahama and his NDC aadministration. Some of us wrote articles and comments against the salary increase of the Executive, the legislature and Judiciary and vehemently opposed the creation of the 45 new constituecies and Districts which has added at least 100 million dollars to government expenditure when the new districts and members of Parliasment will not add anything to how effectively the country is ran.
"Personnel emoluments portion of the Budget, President Mahama noted, had tripled in the last three years, from GH¢2.5 billion to GH¢7.5 billion. This, according to him, has been mainly due to the Single Spine Salary Scheme (SSSS)."
Folks, that is not entirely true.Since Mahama assumed office, the Politicians have seen their salaries doulbled, housing allowance increased by 60% from Ghc30,000 to GHc50,000. We have six new Ministers at the Presidency doing practically nothing and the creation of the so called three wisemen to oversee the President's special projects. We have a new Ministry called Gender and Children headed by Oye Lithur and now President Mahama is behaving as if he has no idea why government salary expenditure is consuming almost 70% of the National budget.
“We now spend a staggering 60.9 percent of our entire national revenue to pay public sector salaries. This is almost double the globally accepted prudent level of between 30 to 35 percent,” the President lamented."
President Mahama is really confused. Though he has plans of where he wants to take the country, he is befuddled by the problems he has encountered and he was right when he said he has been having sleepness nights because he has no clue what to do now and this administration has so far shown that, it is going to be the continuation of the 1981 abrupt disruption of Limann's government by Rawlings and Ghanaians are in for a rough four years if the Supreme Court fails to overturn the 2012 elections. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Mahama, that will be a blessing and a curse to him personally because I don't think this man has the requisite credentials as a President of 'Sikaman' Ghana.
Folks, On October 05, 2012, I wrote an article about the problem we are creating for the incoming administration with the increase in salaries for the three arms of government by creating 45 new constituencies, 45 new Members of Parliament, 45 new districts with 45 DCE's and assemblymen and their salaries which will balloon the government salary expendicture and leave little for National development but the same NDC supporters and the leadership did not listen to good counsel. Now President Mahama has to deal with this problem which is going to cripple him irrespective of what good intentions he has for the country because after government salaries and servicing of our 24 billion National debt soon to rise to 27 billion dollars when the Chinese 3 billion loan is accessed, President Mahama will realise that, his 200 new secondary schools, two international Airports, a new University in Eastern Region and their still insistence of one time premium payment for NHIS is not feasible.
BELOW, I REPRODUCE THE ARTICLE I WROTE ABOUT THIS PROBLEM WHICH WAS NOT ADDRESSED.
Feature Article of Friday, 5 October 2012
Columnist: Sarpong, Justice
The MP's Pay Increase, The Tsunami Effect The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana has cast doubts on the government's ability to meet fiscal targets. They also pointed out the 67.7% of Ghana's public expenditure on salaries, and said that the salary increases must be matched by increased productivity."
Folks, we really do need 45 more Members of Parliament, don't we? This country of ours is zooming on a high speed into a grand canyon if we don't stop the drunk Driver on the wheels. Do we know what we have just done having added 45 more MP's and given them 130% pay raise? Do we know the Tsunami effect of what we have just done? Do we know the constitutional implication for the stupidity we have wrapped around our necks?
The constitution if my memory serves me right stipulates that, the Members of Parliament pay should be pegged to that of the High court Judges and Deputy Ministers. Right, sit down and take a Q-tip and remove the wax from your ears and listen to me real good. Now all the High Court Judges in the country are also going to receive this 130% pay increase likewise people like Hanna Bissiw, Fiifi Kwetey, Okudzeto Ablakwa, Kobby Acheampong etc are all going to cash in. Folks, this is a constitutional mandate and it triggers in automatically like the 45 created constituencies that automatically became law on Wednesday October 3rd. Now all the Deputy Ministers and the High Court Judges will see their salaries go up by 130% and more likely will be retroactive from January 2009. Where does it stop? Not on the doorsteps of the Deputy Ministers and the High Court Judges if you can guess where I am going.
The Supreme Court Judges are mandated by the constitution to receive higher pay than the High Court Judges so the Supreme Court Judges are also going to receive a pay increase windfall likewise you cannot pay the Deputy Ministers more than the Minister, can you? So all the 40 something Ministers are going to receive their jackpot money.The hummingbird just whisppered in my ears that, the MP's pay is also tied to that of the Communication members at the Castle and if that is the case, then people like Ofosu Kwakye, Boamah Otukonor, Nii Vanderpuije and others can also expect a merry Christmas from Father Christmas or what we in USA call,SANTA CLAUS.What have we done to ourselves as a country because Kwadwo Afari Djan and a sick President wanted to show where power lies avoid a boycott by the MP'S so he was held hostage by them and Mills was forced to cave in to the demands of the Sharks and Piranhas in Parliament and this is one of the legacies "ASOMDWEHENE" left for us.
Ghana is in trouble if we spend 2/3 of our budget on salaries alone.Despite this known fact, this administration insisted in creating 45 Districts and 45 constituencies to increase government salary expenditures. Now we are going to have Assemblymen and other workers at the district and Constituencies whose salaries are going to add up to the 67.7% we are spending now. With social intervention program expenses and interest on servicing our debts, Ghana is left with less than 15% of our yearly budget to undertake infrastructure development, that is really low. We should be as a third world country be using at least 50% of our budget on developmental projects not 15%. When you expect government to reduce its expenses to have more money to undertake developmental projects, here we are adding about hundred million dollars if not more to government salary expenditure and these pen robbers are telling us we don't have money to give free education to our children but we have money to put it in their protruding beer stomachs.
DO YOU SEE NPP, NDC, CPP, PPP or any alphabetical soup opposing this daytime robbery?
When it comes to money, you will not hear any disagreement between the Umbrellas and the Elephants or the CPP Cockreal,what a sad day for Ghana. Not only did they receive 130% pay increase but they made it retroactive from January 2009 that means each MP is owed $110,000, a whopping $25 million salary expense government has added to its bourgeoning salary budget which now stands at 67.7% of government budget outlay. People, don't exhale yet, beginning in January, these MP's will also qualify to take home another $50,000 each as Ex-gratia, that is another $11.5 million expense, almost 40 million dollars these pen robbers called MP's will saddle the poor Taxpayer with.
How can these MP's look in the face of the Watchmen at the Ministries who earn about GH200 a month and tell them they feel their pain? Christmas came early for these thieves and Ghanaian workers should lay down their tools of work and demand these people stop this nonsense or they give them the same 130% pay increase retroactive from January 2009, NO COMPROMISE HERE.
Ghanaian Politicians are not even intelligent or they are blinded by the color of money. This is a time the Rich Mp's should stand up and refuse the pay increase and win the hearts of Ghanaians. The other MP's that call themselves Social Democrats, can they stand up and refuse this bonanza? These fools did not buy a dime of Ghana lottery ticket but have won jackpots.
Kennedy Agyapong, can you stand up and refuse this money? Show that you are rich and don't need this stealing on your RESUME(CV)
Alba Bagbin, will you stand up and refuse a real "BLOOD MONEY"? You damn!! Sister-in-law lover.
Justice Sarpong
(CARDINAL of TRUTH)