Economist at the Kumasi Technical University, Dr Smart Sarpong, has waded into the move by the government to ‘touch’ pensioners’ bonds in the Domestic Debt Restructuring Programme.
According to him, touching the pensioners bond is a no go area.
The economist, speaking with Nana Osei Ampfo Adjei on The Big Agenda on Adom TV, said there are various ways government can raise money without touching pensioners bond.
‘’You only have power over things that belong to you so you can come out to tell Ghanaians that I planned building a Cathedral but due to the economic hardship, the amount I decided to invest in the construction of the worship center will be diverted into the economy,” he said.
He stated again that there are a lot of things government can do to raise money without touching pensioners bond, explaining further that some six ministries which at this moment are not necessary should be scrapped to cut down cost.
‘’Ministries like Fisheries, Sanitation, Parliamentary Affairs, Chieftaincy, Railways, Director of Finance at Presidency are all duplication and repetition of departments,” he added.
The lecturer suggested that the Fisheries Ministry should be merged with Food and Agric Ministry, Railways should be added to Roads and Transport, Chieftaincy and Tourism should be a one ministry and because Director of Finance at Presidency takes instructions from the Finance Minister, that office should be scrapped.
‘’When you talk about Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs, people say it is not any big ministry but it a department with Chief Director and so on. We don’t need it,” Mr Sarpong lamented.
‘’If this is done, government can raise money to boost the economy and not necessarily touching money of people who have worked and gone on retirement before you can solve the economic crisis