Election Petition; Part Of Our Economic Woes Say Ogbamey...But NPP MP Sharply Disagrees

Managing Editor of the defunct Gye Nyame Concord newspaper has joined the school of thought that the Single Spine Salary Policy (SSSP) has contributed to the downward trend of the country�s economy. According to Alfred Ogbamey, the impact and the cost of single spine is so huge that if government does not fix it, the crisis in the economy will be worse. �There are a number of factors that has contributed to the current economic crisis and one of them is the SSSP�it (SSSP) increased revenue to such an extent that we are spending more than 70% of our generated revenue on about 600,000 workers out of a population of 24 million; it is impossible�If you look at the number of workers in the country; most of them are in the informal sector and they are entitled to development just like everybody and so if you spend that much of money from our generated revenue on the formal sector, how much are you going to get� he asked. Alfred was contributing to panel discussions on Peace FM�s premium Morning show �Kokrokoo� with sit-in host, Nana Yaw Kesse. According to Alfred, the second factor that has led to the current economy crisis is the election petition. He said anybody who will think otherwise is probably leaving in a dreamland. �The election petition also played a role in the difficulties we are experiencing and anybody who will say otherwise is not being truthful. Had it not been the election petition, government would have started solving the problem; especially concerning the budget deficit somewhere in January. But for eight months we were in court; people were afraid that there will be chaos after the final ruling and that also made investors run away. It also reduced productivity�� he added. But in a quick rebuttal, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyir, Frank Annor Dompreh says if the NDC led administration cannot make headway in solving the crisis in the economy, they should not blame it on the election petition and the SSSP. He said the �election petition has rather helped in raising the image and integrity of the country�. �Today Ghana has been elevated worldwide because of the election petition. It is not really the case. If they cannot put things right in the economy, they should not blame it on the election petition� Government also knew beforehand the cost of the SSSP before it was implemented; if they didn�t then they don�t know what governance is all about,� he asserted.