The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described the Genser energy deal between the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) with the blessings of the Energy Ministry, as a “glaring theft of national resources for private gain”.
According to the party, “the deal which is stifling the Ghana Gas company and may end up collapsing this monumental NDC legacy project” after enriching cronies of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The national chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said this at an event dubbed, “The True State of the Nation” on Monday.
He described it as “another example of the corrupt schemes under this government” saying it is vigorously opposed to it.
“Under this corrupt deal, this government has decided to allow persons known to be affiliated to the NPP to build a private Gas plant so GNPC can sell natural gas from our oil fields to them at one-third of the price at which they sell it to Ghana Gas which is state owned”.
“The whole idea is to cream off hundreds of millions of dollars in unreasonable and super-normal profits into the pockets of greedy NPP cronies.
“As Chairman of the NDC, I wish to serve notice that we will vigorously oppose this glaring theft of national resources for private gain”.
The NDC national chairman, said that President Akufo-Addo’s words cannot be trusted anymore, because he has proved to be dishonest in his dealings with Ghanaians.
Mr Nketia, stated that everything the President has said and promised during his tenure, has turned out to be a “scam”.
“During this crisis, nothing the President says can be believed because everything he has said has proven to be untrue. Ghanaians have come to realise that the claim by the President that he knew how to revive a dead economy was a scam. ‘We are a proud nation, we are not going to the IMF’ was a scam and there will be no haircut was a scam,” Mr Nketia said.
The NDC, used the event to tell Ghanaians about the state of Ghana’s economy from its perspective.
Mr Asiedu Nketia noted that President Akufo-Addo, has also failed to deliver on his ‘Agenda 111’ promise to build hospitals across the country.
He added that “the promise to abolish road toll was a scam. The promise to convert toll booths to modern public toilets was a scam, the claim that there was a global shortage of childhood vaccines was a scam, and no state funds will finance the national cathedral was a scam.”
He stated that the government, has run down the economy, but blaming the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors.
The NDC national chairman, noted that the pandemic is far from being the cause of Ghana’s economic woes. He explained that Covid-19 brought the country “an unprecedented windfall” of about GH₵30 billion.
The money, he said, was meant to manage and mitigate the impact of the pandemic, but the government “wasted” it on election-related expenses.
“This amount excludes proceeds from the obnoxious Covid levy which Ghanaians continue to pay to date. According to the Auditor-General, only 11.7% of this amount was spent on Covid-19 with a remainder of about GH₵18 billion being channeled into so-called budget support.”
“The Covid-19 pandemic affected all countries in the world, including our next-door neighbours. Whereas these countries managed their resources prudently, thereby recording a deficit below 8% and a debt to GDP ratio below 65%, this government borrowed excessively and spent recklessly for election purposes. Thereby, recording a disastrous deficit of 15.7% and debt to GDP ratio of about 80% in 2020.”
Mr Nketia, stated that with these and many more, Ghanaians cannot put their trust in the government.
“The last thing that is required in times of crisis, is a leader whose words ring hollow and who cannot be trusted,” he said.
