Builsa South Member of Parliament Dr Clement Apaak who is also a ranking member on the education committee of Parliament has asked the Finance Minister to explain why caterers under the national school feeding programme are on strike if the envelope for the programme has been increased as he claimed following the $3billion bailout of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It is recalled that during the joint Ghana-IMF press conference on Thursday, May 19, the Finance Minister addreesed concerns that the IMF bailout was going to affect social intervention programmes such as the school feeding programme.
Concerns were raised that social interventions such as the free senior high school, school feeding programme and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) were going to be affected by the bailout.
But Mr Ofori-Atta said the IMF bailout was going to strenthen the interventions and make them better.
In a tweet, Dr Apaak said “After reading the conditions of the IMF deal with Ghana, I now understand why the reckless, corrupt, galamsey Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP gov’t negotiated the deal without consulting. There is no way we (Ghanaians) would have agreed to some of the conditions! Braceup for more wahala!”
He added “If the envelope of resources for the school feeding programme has been increased as Ken Ofori-Atta said at the IMF Head Quarters, why are the caterers still on strike because gov’t owes them and has failed to increase the fee from 97p to ghc3.50p per child per day. Is Ken Ofori-Atta sincere?”
The IMF Mission Chief for Ghana Stéphane Roudet also the social intervention programmes in Ghana are going to be protected by the $3 billion bailout.
Concerns were raised that social interventions such as the free senior high school, school feeding programme and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) were going to be affected by the bailout
But Mr Roudet said during a joint Ghana -IMF press conference in Washington on Thursday, May 18 that “Ensuring adequate social protection is key objective of the programme. The 2023 budget has already taken important steps not only to protect but to bolster support for the vulnerable.”
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta also made the same point that the social intervention programmes will not be touched.
“We protecting the vulnerable is very clear in the programme. We are doubling the LEAP programme to ensure the welfare support continues, we should not worry at all,” he said.
He further indicated that there is no rush on the part of the government to return to the international capital market to borrow following the coming on board the $ 3 billion bailout.
When asked a question about Ghana returning to the capital market Mr Ofpri-Atta said that “In addition to the revenue measures that we saw in the budget that are improving at GRA and that will give us the resource to move forward, curtailing and managing our expenditures are going to be important.
“There is no rush in going back to the international capital market, our expectation is that in managing our expenditure and increasing our revenue we will have the resources to do it, working towards the capital market is important because we don’t get our ratings up and make the country more attractive for investors, especially FDIs. So no one is rushing to the capital market at this juncture.”
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