Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, Kwaku Kwarteng, has urged President John Dramani Mahama to take bold and difficult economic decisions without fear of electoral consequences.
Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News on Thursday, January 8, the Former Deputy Finance Minister dismissed the notion that enforcing fiscal discipline and holding taxpayers accountable would cost the government political support.
According to him, President Mahama is uniquely positioned to implement long-overdue reforms but has so far shown little indication of pursuing clear policy changes.
He argued that critical expenditure areas such as the wage bill and interest payments remain largely unaddressed, describing the current approach as “business as usual.”
“The suggestion that once you are tough, once you go after people who pay their taxes, once you rein in expenditure, somehow, you are going to lose an election, I do not believe that. And I think President Mahama is in the unique position to do the reforms I am calling for.
“So far, I have not seen much. I have yet to see any clear change. If you look at the big items in our expenditure profile, the wage bill, interest payments, what are the policy positions or the changes the government is pursuing on these lines?
“If we cannot discuss clear changes, then it is very much business as usual. I take this opportunity to speak to the president and to say, you are not coming back, please deploy the hard decisions that this country has been needing for so long,” he said.
