We won’t tolerate adverse IMF conditionalities – UTAG warns

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has vowed not to accept any International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalities that will negatively affect their existing agreements with the government.

The association, in a statement, said the government must ensure that the conditions set will not disadvantage labour unions, including UTAG.

The statement is coming at a time when officials of the IMF are yet to meet the government of Ghana on Wednesday, 6 July, to conclude on modalities for financial support.

It will be recalled that on Friday, 1 July 2022, the Information Ministry announced that President Nana Akufo-Addo had approved an IMF bailout.

The association also used the opportunity to urge the government to consider homegrown policies to solve economic challenges faced by the country.

“It is important to note that between 1966 and 2015, Ghana has been to the IMF 16 times to seek support to address the country’s economic problems. Indeed, within the fourth Republic and over the last 30 years, this will be the sixth time the country is going to the IMF for support.

“This means that, on average, Ghana seeks the support of the IMF every five (5) years to address its economic problems. Therefore, it is safe to deduce that resorting to the IMF all the time is not a sustainable way of dealing with our country’s economic problems.

“Consequently, the country cannot continue to resort to the IMF for support every now and then. As a Labour Union that trains and produces the nation’s workforce, including those involved with providing the requisite policies for economic growth and development in the country, UTAG would have preferred government to seek homegrown solutions to our economic woes.

“This is premised on our recent unpleasant history of previous engagements with IMF. We, thus, feel uneasy with the government’s decision given its potential negative impact on UTAG members, and by extension public sector workers, and its repercussion on the operations of Public Universities,” the association said.

The decision to seek refuge from the IMF was received with mixed feelings, as it comes as a major U-turn by the government after it vowed never to go under an IMF programme.

The Minority in Parliament, for instance, said the government had delayed since the country’s economy had not been in good form for many months.

Former Deputy Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson welcomed the government’s decision to go to the IMF for assistance.

“I am glad that finally, the NPP government has taken the decision to go to the IMF in a way that Ghana can get the programme obviously to implement, that will, in the long term, bring about the economic stability that we want.

“I have always said that Ghana first. First a Ghanaian, and second a politician. I want to reiterate the fact that this administration has unfortunately delayed too long; it has taken them too long to take a very simple decision and to work very hard to get the programme,” the MP for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Constituency said in an interview.

For the Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, the government’s decision not to seek an IMF bailout early would make negotiations difficult.

“The challenge now is that their (government’s) ego for a very long time made it difficult for them to make the right decisions, and here we have arrived at a point where it is going to be a very tough couple of months in the negotiations of this program because we have arrived at a point where you just don’t have the capacity to negotiate at a point of strength.

“The Programme led by Ken Ofori-Atta will be meaningless. It will be an exercise in futility. They will have no commitment to the very milestones that will be agreed upon. The IMF, the World Bank, and the multilateral institutions are quite clear about the status of Ken Ofori-Atta in any such arrangement. And so to ask him to even lead the process smacks of some level of hypocrisy and a government that is indecisive,” Isaac Adongo indicated.

Also, Member of Parliament (MP) for Sagnarigu, ABA Fuseini, believes the decision to go to the IMF for support is an indication of the mismanagement of the economy by the Akufo-Addo-led administration.

“A return to the IMF shows the catastrophic mismanagement of the economy.

“They told us that they were not going to the IMF. They must apologise to the people of this country for imposing hardship on Ghanaians, and they are now going to the IMF,” he said.

But their colleagues on the other side of the bench have a contrary view despite the glaring u-turn on the bailout.

The Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah, who was very vocal against going to the IMF, has justified the move, explaining that it will help the country solve economic challenges faster.

“Our objective as a government is to restore confidence in the economy and rebound it from the difficulty, from the challenges.

“We believe that where we stand now, an IMF intervention will help us come out quicker than we could. We hope that it will benefit the country,” he said on TV3.