Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah, a former member of parliament for New Juaben South, claims that the current economic problems the nation is experiencing is partly due to government expenditure during the Covid-19 outbreak.
He said that the government's excessive spending was caused by the introduction of policies to protect the public during the epidemic.
In an interview with Citi TV, Dr. Yeboah stated that "government funding went into the roof, the free water, electricity, the prepared meals, the covid support and everything that was handed out."
He recounted how, despite the Fiscal Responsibility Act's prohibition on government spending over a particular level, they had petitioned Parliament to overturn the law.
According to the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the annual deficit cannot be more than 5%. But after that, you may disregard it. The statute specifies that under emergency situations or, to put it simply, during a pandemic, he said.
He stated that there were slippages that surfaced during the 2020 election, among other things.
"I don't think all of it is attributed to the epidemic and then the war," he said, "if you look at how we were able to manage the outbreak and then the ramifications thereof."
Dr. Yeboah was discussing the causes of the economy's collapse and the government's decision to request a bailout from the IMF. President Akufo-Addo gave the Finance Minister formal permission to approach the IMF for help with the balance of payments around a week ago.
However, there have been conflicting views to the government's decision to apply for financial protection from the Fund. Members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in particular have argued that it is long past time.
Some have also voiced concern about what the decision would imply for social programmes and jobs in the public sector, with organised labour opposing the choice.
Dr. Theo Acheampong, a political and economic commentator, has stated on Newsfile that he believes Ghana's choice to approach the IMF will restore trust in the country's economy.
He claimed that the choice indicates to participants in the global capital market that the nation is moving in the direction of "fixing the situation that we find ourselves in."
Dr. Yeboah contends that Ghana's economic problems are not primarily attributable to the avian influenza virus-19 epidemic and the conflict in Ukraine.
Prior to the conflict, he said, Ghana's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) had been lowered by the international ratings firm Fitch.
"Since there was no conflict when Ghana was demoted in January, we should exclude the war-related information. The benefit of a fund programme is that it would force us to audit our financial records. Therefore, we would be aware of, for example, the arrears status when the fund arrived.