Pressure group OccupyGhana has described as disappointing the government’s decision to seek financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In a statement, the group noted that this move contradicts the much-touted ‘Ghana beyond Aid’ the incumbent administration propagates.
Last week, the Akufo-Addo government made a formal declaration of its intention to engage the IMF for an amount of $2 billion to support a programme.
However, OccupyGhana believes Ghana loses an enormous chunk of its revenue to embezzlement and misappropriation.
Thus, the country “would not need the IMF if the government was serious about recovering these lost and stolen monies, and then plugging the holes that allowed them to be lost or stolen in the first place.”
“That is why this return to the IMF for a ‘paltry’ $2 billion leaves a bitter taste in our mouths. We would not be submitting ourselves to this forced and humiliating ‘Ghana [is not yet] beyond aid’ position if we had prevented the losses and thefts in the first place. In the second place, we would not be here if we had taken the simple steps of recovering the monies lost and stolen,” parts of the statement read.
The group further quizzed, “How credible is this return to the IMF, when the monies we seek, sit comfortably in the bank accounts and pockets of those who caused us to lose the monies or who stole our monies?
On the back of this, the group charged the Auditor-General and Attorney-General Departments to take up their role dutifully by ensuring that stolen public monies are recovered for the benefit and growth of the country.
“A nation that will not prevent or recover its lost and stolen monies, will keep making return trips to the IMF,” it stressed.