The Member of Parliament for the Bolgatanga Central Constituency, Isaac Adongo has thanked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for what he said was a confirmation to Ghanaians that the government now had two sets of data on the economy from which it picks to do its work.
He said while the existence of two sets of data – one for the IMF and the international audience and another for Ghanaians was true – it was unethical, distasteful and an embarrassment to Ghana and Ghanaians in particular.
In an article, the MP further wondered which of the data sets formed the basis for government’s comparism with his party, the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) performance while in power to arrive at the conclusion that the President Akufo-Addo administration was a better manager of the economy than the erstwhile Mahama administration.
“Whenever Dr Bawumia says that he is comparing the performance of the NDC’s four years with the NPP’s three-year performance, what data is he always using? Does he always use the one that has been given to or released by the IMF or the one that the IMF continually refines to meet the internationally-accepted requirement?”
In an apparent response, Mr Adongo said among the two sets of data, the one that was more appealing but does not reflect the true state of the economy was always given to Ghanaians while the one that was not appealing yet reflective of the economy was given to or generated by the IMF.
He said this was “distasteful” and called on the government to desist from the practice and be truthful with the economy to Ghanaians.
In a press statement issued on May 9, the Ministry of Finance said the allegations of data discrepancy were inaccurate.
It said the differences in the data stemmed from the fact that the one presented in the budgets were third quarter figures while those in the IMF report were full year data.
Source: graphic.com.gh
