The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) has said there is an urgent need to downsize government machinery and cut down on expenditure as the country’s economy is in crisis.
The GPCC said the government’s ability to take those drastic decisions will build confidence to address the country’s economic challenges.
The ecumenical body also emphasised the importance of the government demonstrating a strong sense of burden-sharing to encourage key bondholders to fully accept the domestic debt exchange programme (DDEP) voluntarily to help the country make its debt sustainable.
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“This should include the government explicitly and verifiably cutting down on its expenditure, including reducing the size of government, among other areas. This is very critical to encourage the buy-in of the public,” a communique issued at the end of the GPCC’s Conference of Heads of Churches and Organisations (CHCO) Extraordinary National Delegates Conference said.
The communique, signed by the newly elected President of the GPCC, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, said it was the view of the 2023 CHCO that the economy of Ghana was presently in dire straits, and that the government could not approach the resolution of the current economic situation in a business-as-usual manner.
The communique went on to advice that every effort must be made to carry the citizenry along in decision-making processes.
“This will promote confidence in our governance architecture and ensure that every stakeholder commits to contributing to the solution. Indeed, the role of government is to work for the interest of the citizenry and the state,” it said.
Apostle Nyamekye said policies of governments should promote the good of the citizenry, rather than merely for the political party of the government.
It urged the government to review its major flagship programmes, in the light of the current economic challenges, as a means to resolving the difficulties the country was going through.
The communique supported calls for a non-partisan national consultative forum to dispassionately discuss and gather ideas to address the prevailing socio-economic and environmental challenges.
While acknowledging the proposal to set up the financial sector stability fund as a measure to provide support for the financial sector, the council said it expected to see a clear demonstration that the facility was fully funded for implementation in order to provide full assurance for the financial sector and the banking community.
“Whatever form the DDEP takes, the government should ensure that the financial sector, a key pillar of growth in the economy, is not destroyed in the process.
“The council is concerned that key vulnerable groups (pensioners, individual small savers, among others) are not being adequately protected in this DDEP.
“The council will encourage the government to ensure that the financial sector, which has been restructured more recently, and vulnerable groups are fully protected in the design of the programme in order to limit the burden on such groups,” it stressed.
Source: Graphic
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