The Minority in Parliament has pointed out that the recently announced Staff-Level Agreement (SLA) between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Government of Ghana under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme is evidence to prove that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led Government had neither breached the terms of the Programme nor “criminally managed” the economy as was alleged by President John Mahama.
The SLA paves way for a US$370 million release once the IMF Executive Board grants final approval but the Minority insists this good news and the 4th Review of the IMF program is based on End-December 2024 performance of the economy under the NPP led government and if the terms of the programme had been breached as alleged, the SLA would not have been reached.
“The new Government has just finalized discussions with the IMF on its new policies through the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies; which are yet to be implemented. The NDC government can therefore not claim any credit for the Staff Level Agreement and the subsequent approval by the IMF Executive Board”, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, the former Minister for Finance noted on behalf of the Minority in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The Minority statement said SLA as announced, is a confirmation to suspicions that the current government manipulated the fiscal data to achieve political objectives and to support the earlier claims by President John Mahama that the economy he inherited was run-down.
The statement noted further: “Whilst the Minister for Finance in the 2025 Budget announced the primary fiscal deficit on commitment basis (the fiscal anchor of the IMF program) to be 3.9% of GDP, the IMF found it to be 3.25%, a difference of about 0.7% of GDP.
“This is notwithstanding that the IMF itself departed from their own definition of the primary fiscal balance as defined in the Technical Memorandum of Understanding reached at the beginning of the program. By allowing multi-year payables to feature in the determination of the primary fiscal balance as if they occurred in 2024, the Fund Ghana Mission has effectively assessed the fiscal balance on metrics that vary from all the previous reviews conducted on program implementation. We are confident that the Executive Board of IMF will review the fiscal performance with integrity and ensure that our economy is devoid of data manipulation to restore confidence in the fiscal data of the country.
“It must also be noted that reaching a Staff Level Agreement has vindicated the previous NPP government contrary to the new government’s assertion that the program had been breached and the economy “criminally mismanaged” in the words of the President of the Republic. The Minister for Finance, Hon. Ato Forson, declared during the 2025 budget presentation that the previous government had breached the IMF program because it missed the targets for the primary fiscal balance, payables and inflation.
“The Staff Level Agreement has proven that many of the targets had been met and missing these few targets could not collapse the program as the new government tried hard to communicate in furtherance of its propaganda objective.
“The 4th Review of the IMF program is based on End-December 2024 performance of the economy. To reach a Staff Level Agreement on these performances is therefore fully attributed to the economic success of the previous NPP government. The new Government has just finalized discussions with the IMF on its new policies through the “Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies”; which are yet to be implemented. The NDC government can therefore not claim any credit for the Staff Level Agreement and the subsequent approval by the IMF Executive Board.
“The people of Ghana will recall that in 2016 under an IMF program, President Mahama’s government missed almost all the targets leading to a renegotiation of the then IMF program. The same cannot be said of the current program as it has not been renegotiated and is fully on track in line with program objectives.
“As we wait for the approval of the Staff Level Agreement at the IMF Executive Board level, we want to assure the people of Ghana that we will remain committed to holding the government accountable to ensure that the sustainable path we have achieved in the growth of the economy and debt levels are not compromised.”
