Minister of State in-charge of Finance and Allied Institutions, has stated unequivocally that the economic problems confronting the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress administration have not been the creation of the government, but rather have been caused by Ghanaian workers.
In his attempt to rubbish the diagnosis of Ghana�s economy put forward by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, �Restoring the value of the Cedi,� the Ketu South MP even accused the 2012 Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party of inciting public sector workers to demand more wages from government.
�I felt what Bawumia did was indirectly inciting the workers of Ghana to actually demand for more� it was a very unpatriotic attitude� by telling them that they are not the cause when the truth is that they are the cause,� he said.
According to Fifi Kwetey, �if somebody tells you that Single Spine is not a problem, the person obviously is clueless. He hasn�t taken his time to understand the issues� Bawumia obviously shows to be clueless.�
Despite the many predictions on the economy made by Dr. Bawumia which have since come to pass, the all-knowing Fifi Kwetey admonished the NPP to present people with deeper knowledge and practical experience to talk about the economy �as opposed to a theoretician who clearly has no clue what is going on.�
Dr. Bawumia in his lecture stated that the argument of the NDC has been that wages and salaries of government workers account for over 70% of government revenue.
This was rebutted by Dr. Bawumia, who brought out figures to show that 70% of government revenues are not being used to pay workers.
Dr. Bawumia revealed that at the end of 2008, government wage bill amounted to GH1.98 billion, representing 41.3 percent of total domestic revenue of GH4.8 billion. By the end of 2012, after 99% implementation of the single spine salary system, the government wage bill jumped by some GH4.6 billion to GH6.6 billion.
He further noted that, while the government wage bill increased by some GH4.6 billion between 2008 and 2012, total government revenue also increased from GH4.8 billion to GH15.5 over the same period.
�The increase in domestic revenue by GH10.7 billion was more than twice the increase in the government wage bill. Indeed, by the end of 2012, the government wage bill following the implementation of the single spine salary system was 42.9% of total domestic revenues. This is not significantly different from the 41.3% in 2008. At the end of 2013 the government wage bill absorbed 53% of government revenue, underpinned by a weak tax revenue performance,� Dr. Bawumia noted.
He added, �Mr. Chairman, the current economic difficulties can therefore not be attributed to the single spine salary system which had been 99% implemented at the of 2012.�
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