Government should adopt principle of burden-sharing – Dr. Assibey Yeboah

Former Chairman of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah, says government should adopt the principle of burden-sharing.

This, he says, will encourage Ghanaians to cooperate with the government on its fiscal policies and austerity measures.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he stated that to show good faith the government should review some of its flagship programmes to cut cost.

He also reiterated calls for the government to reduce its size.

According to him, while these measures may not significantly reduce the government’s expenditure, it would send a sign that the government is sharing in the burden.

“Government appointees, every agency you go to now has in the minimum two deputies. Yes, they may be doing something there, but in the crisis we’re in now take a step back and say that now some of you should just stay home. That’s how you burden share.

“In terms of numbers it will not be huge because if I keep CAPEX at 16billion I will only be saving 11 billion, maybe the 27billion we might not even realize it, but it’s good for the optics. People will say that ‘o we’re in crisis, government is sharing in the burden so let me also chip in’. I’m not seeing that,” he said.

Adding to this, Economist, Dr. Theo Acheampong, says government needs to send a strong signal to the citizenry and the investor community of its commitment to burden share.

“We need to see government doing something, or you know, sending a clear signal to Ghanaians and to other investors within the economy that indeed we’re in a crisis moment and that calls for that burden sharing across the board. unfortunately, I haven’t seen that coming through; either in terms of the rhetoric or in terms of the actual numbers that underpin some of these macro targets.”