ECONOMY & FINANCE By Dr. Robert Mensah-Biney, Ramseyer '68 I am sure most of us on this forum have at one time tried to ignore the mediocrity and lack of management skills that are exhibited by the leaders and managers of the present (NDC) government. However, the kind of activities and pronouncements coming from ministers of state and sometimes the head of state are beyond belief (stupid arrogance and incompetence). Please, refer to the presentation on the state of the economy in Ghana by the Deputy Minister of Finance published elsewhere on the Internet October 27, 1999 (unfortunately, I cannot find and post it for your reading).

I do not know how to characterize this presentation because, I do not know the background of Mr. Selormey and I would not like to be disrespectful of him. However, his presentation did not make common sense to me. Therefore, I would like to ask you (professional economists and managers) to help me out to understand the presentation of the Honorable Minister.

I would like to mention that I was in Ghana in February 1998 and I happened to listen to the presentation of the budget by Mr. Kwame Peprah, the Minister of Finance. Mr. Peprah used the same buzz words that Mr. Selormey is using here in this presentation. At that time, I imagined that Mr. Peprah had taken a time off and traveled to UK to listen to the reading of the budget by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and tried to present his budget in a similar manner.

It was obvious then and now that these people parading as ministers of state are incapable of original thinking and ideas, and they are just recycling ideas including the presentation formats left over by their colonial masters in the civil service. It is a shame that our dear country has been denigrated to this level; and with all the qualified professional economists and administrators scattered around the globe we cannot find more qualified and competent people to be the ministers of finance.

Now here are my questions for those of you who understand the jargon recycled from the colonial civil service (used by the Honorable Minister) and care to help me out:

1. What are donor inflows? Who are these donors that are so gullible to donate 1,546 billion cedis to a country managed by these incompetent individuals? Maybe these donors do not expect to get any return from their donations.

2. Does the budget of this government rely solely on these donations? That is the impression I gathered from the presentation. What do the donors get in return for their donation? What happens if the donors decide not to donate? Unbelievable!!

3. Why did the donors decide to give out only 30% (460 billion cedis) of what they had originally promised? Or did they really promise the government such donation in the first place?

4. Why did the budgeted receipt of 6063 billion cedis decrease to 5983 billion cedis and what is the meaning of financing that increased from 668 billion to 793 billion cedis?

5. What was the reason for the increase of statutory expenditures from 310 billion to 3195 billion? I cannot imagine how any competent person can be wrong in their estimate by 1,000% (10 times) or one order of magnitude. Was the original figure off by a missing decimal (3100 billion instead of 310 billion)?

6. How did these professional economists and managers come up with discretionary expenditures of 1547 billion cedis in the first place and how do they propose to convince the people of Ghana that their estimate have to be revised down to 509 billion cedis, a whopping 67% reduction?

Amanfoo, we have been too diplomatic about these acts of mediocrity, incompetence and stupid arrogance exhibited by these imposter leaders. However, the time has come for all of us to speak out and make it clear to them that they have not shown the mental capacity and professional experience to manage the affairs of the country. Surely, they gave their best which was not good enough. They should give way to qualified professional Ghanaians who can manage the affairs of the country. These imposter leaders should get rid of their stupid pride and arrogance and hire Ghanaian professionals to help them. I am confident that despite their politics most qualified Ghanaian professionals would be happy to help in the management of the affairs of the country if they are paid right. Instead of the government trotting all over the world to look for expatriates for help, they should look inside the Ghanaian community for help. The government should come out and announce in public (radio and television) that they are incompetent and incapable of managing the affairs of the country and they need help. WE WILL UNDERSTAND!