A co-founder of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) Professor Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, says the slash of the salaries of government appointees – ministers of state and their deputies, regional ministers, metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) and the heads of state-owned enterprises should have come earlier.
He finds the decision to be entirely right and says he has been wondering why it took so long for the government to cut the salaries.
This should have come at the height of the flu-like virus pandemic (Covid-19) when it became clear that the economy was going to run into trouble – go into tailspin.
Prof Gyimah-Boadi has strong conviction that if this had been done at that time, there would not have been that strong opposition to the introduction of the electronic transaction tax (e-levy).
“The salary cut is not a populist approach. I think it may have been symbolic but those were important symbolic measures for a government that is imposing some kind of austerity measure on the population or a government that is imposing additional taxes on the population.”
A former United Nations (UN) Advisor, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, however, says it is not enough to cut the salaries of government appointees and he is demanding that they stop their lavish and immoderate lifestyles to save the country’s troubled economy.
The government and its appointees should stop behaving and living like Arabian Kings. In addition to the salary slash, Prof Agyeman-Duah, says there must be clear measures to end the wasteful and reckless spending.
He made a reference to the large fleet of powerful and luxurious vehicles the President has been traveling around the country with and he does not want this to continue.
“And this can be seen in whether the president for instance is going to continue to move around with 40 or 50 cars.
When you know that fuel prices have hit the roof and you are going to line up 40 cars just to take you to a place. If the president will say in view of the austerity measures I am going to use 10 cars, that will be dramatic for the public.”
Content created and supplied by: KyeretwienanaOseiBonsu (via Opera News )
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