...For Causing Financial Loss To The State

By Kwadwo Poku

The late Komla Dumor in an interview several years ago, bemoaned the ism of rewarding incompetence which unfortunately seems to be the standard operating procedure across the fruited plains of our dear continent. And as I lament about the economic malaise we've been plagued by in these recent months as a result of incompetent governance amid a superfluous abundance of resources, the words of the iconic broadcaster echoes and reverberates in grieve.

In the 2012 vice presidential debate, the snail pace decline of the cedi at that time was one of the many topics and the response that oozed out from the mouth of vice president Kwasi Amissah-Arthur really shocked me as I relate it to current happenings. He blamed it on electioneering. He said the decline of the cedi was due to the fact that we were in an election year and uncertainties of the outcome coupled with the talking down of the economy by the opposition were the culprits. That was a year and a half ago but today the cedi is declining at concord speed.

Dr. Bawumia on the other hand succinctly attributed the decline of the cedi to the payments of the so called judgement debts, the "dolarization" of the economy and the lackluster performance of the NDC/Mahama led administration. He even shredded to pieces the claim by the administration of the reduction in inflation and he did so by pointing out that the inflation figures being boasted off by the Mahama led government could only be true because the wrong measuring basket was used, in other words by cooking the books for a predetermined outcome. Today, the sorry state of our economy has vindicated Dr. Bawumia's submissions and he is now perceived to be an economical prophet.

Now, if vice president Kwasi Amissah-Arthur in his previous occupation as the governor of the central Bank Of Ghana was guided by mistaken beliefs of the cyclical decline of the cedi being the result of electioneering and did nothing to remedy the situation during his tenure as governor but waited out for the cedi to correct itself, then it is fair to say that his economical philosophy which is myopic at best is the bane of our current malaise. To put it bluntly his incompetence has caused financial loss to the state and he must therefore face prosecution since causing financial loss to the state is a crime.

I write this not with tongue in cheek but with pain in my heart because the man who heads the economic team of our beloved Ghana has no clue and it is an insult to academia to use his name and the word economist in the same sentence. If such an incompetent man can be rewarded to be the vice president as the late Komla Afeke Dumor once bemoaned, then we are of all countries most miserable.

Kwadwo Poku N Y