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Government has responded to Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s public lecture on the IMF bailout and described it as a propaganda gimmick rather than an academic exposition as it sought to portray.

In an interview on Joy FM Wednesday morning, the Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah said Dr Bawumia did not do justice to the institution, the Central University College (CUC) and to the students who came to listen to him speak on the topic, “The IMF bailout: Will the anchor hold?” 

At best Dr Omane Boamah said the running mate of the New Patriotic Party "embellished the facts to dwarf the monumental achievements made by government."

As a visiting Professor of Economic Governance at CUC, Dr Bawumia delivered the lecture at the university as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series and said any economic and financial programme was only as good as the data used to formulate the programme.

He argued that the anchor being sought from the IMF for Ghana’s economy would not hold if the data upon which the programme was built were not credible.

This, he said was because there were inconsistencies with the two main sets of data on inflation and gross domestic product (GDP) which provided the basis on which the IMF programme was fashioned.

He said credible data provided the basis of the analytical framework to respond adequately to economic challenges. 

“If you have make-believe data, you will end up with counter-productive or inadequate responses to economic policies. If your data are not credible, the anchor cannot hold.” 

“With make-believe data as the basis, the best you can achieve is make-believe results, which will soon be exposed, as we are witnessing currently,” he told the gathering of academia, politicians, captains of industry and finance, as well as civil society. 

But in a response Dr Omane Boamah said the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana’s  attempt to question the sanctity of the figures provided by the Statistical Service which formed the basis of the IMF bailout was disingenuous.

He said Dr Bawumia had a reputation of running down the Statistical Service and got it all wrong with his comparison of figures from the Service to that of the Ministry of Agriculture.

He said the Statistical Service remained the country's reliable institution for data gathering and interpretation.

The Communications Minister said the IMF which has a superior statistical and analytical skill went through the data provided by government, had some challenges especially with the debt rationalisation but in the end approved the data.

Adding he said the issues raised by Dr Bawumia were nothing new and that the government was working assiduously to resolve the challenges.

Asked by the host of the Joy FM morning programme, Kojo Yankson whether there would be job cuts with the IMF programme as was suggested by Dr Bawumia, the Communications Minister said he cannot tell especially as the IMF board was still considering the programme for approval.

He said government would not hide any aspects of the negotiations and would publish it once it was approved.

“…but let no one conclude that because you are in an IMF programme even if you are drinking water and the water doesn’t taste the way it should taste, you are going to ascribe it to an IMF programme.”

Pressed further for a definite answer on the job cuts, Dr Omane Boamah said, “If the board approves the programme the full details of this would be made known, it is very very very inappropriate at this stage to be talking about even things that are presently before the board.”

He said cannot say whether Dr Bawumia was right or wrong and said “when the information is made available what is to be implemented, we will put that out. Let’s not jump before the horse. If the final outcome coincides with what he has said, why not.”