Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Hon. Fifi Kwetey, has roared at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to shut up as government finds ways to fix the mess left behind by the Kufuor-led administration.

According to him, the opposition NPP would serve Ghanaians well by not disturbing their peace as the President Mills administration clears the mess the Kufuor government created before they left power in 2008. He declared, “shut up, we are fixing your mess so stop disturbing our peace”. He revealed that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has had to literally hold onto vital social and economic investments in order to service arrears left by the erstwhile NPP government adding that if these were normal arrears, the NDC would not complain.

“26 trillion cedis arrears is not an amount that will amuse anybody”, he stated and noted that these debts were incurred in just one year, which reflects the reckless financial management of the NPP. He disclosed that at the last count close to the September judgement debt alone incurred by the NPP government stood at a colossal amount of 5.6 trillion cedis, signifying the height of the bad governance of the NPP. Explaining the phenomenon of the judgement debt, the deputy Finance Minister stated that the NPP came into power and run into difficulties with contractors and people who needed to be paid.

However, in line with the way they managed everything, the Kufuor administration blatantly refused to pay, even in situations where judgment had been awarded against the government. According to him, being in charge of the judiciary, the NPP got its way in such matters except in situations where the matter had been taken to those international courts where judgements were imposed but the NPP could not care and refused to pay and in the process accumulated the 5.6 trillion cedis which the new administration is compelled to pay. “If this was the height of a bad government, then I don’t know what else is and this was the government that says it believed in the rule of law”, he stated.

Fifi Kwetey averred that for a ruling party that claimed to believe in the rule of law, it was incumbent on the NPP to honour the judgement even if it was displeased with the outcomes, once a court had ruled against the government and used the case of Mr. Hodari Okai to stress this point.

According to him, in the early part of the NDC administration just after the country had revered to constitutional rule, the Supreme Court ruled against the government in relation to the celebration of the June 4th anniversary and even though the NDC was not pleased, the government refrained from officially commemorating the day in respect of the Supreme Court judgment. He argued the NDC promised to invest in people in terms of investments in education, infrastructure and other social amenities but with such colossal arrears to contend with, the government is seriously constrained as it is compelled to find avenues of finding the funds to pay the huge arrears left by the NPP.

The Deputy Finance Minister pointed out that these heavy commitments dumped on the incoming administration did not include debts incurred at places like the Tema Oil Refinery and other places and yet the NPP continue to make ugly noises in the face of the huge burden the former government left behind. Hon Fifi Kwetey stressed that the Mills administration is however not deterred and would continue applying the prudent measures it is implement.