Finance Minister Seth Terkper to be sacked?

There is a groundswell of rumours that President John Mahama may remove his Minister for Finance, Seth Terkper, from office.

NPP MP Dr. Mark Assibey believes the President is looking at 2016 election politics with this decision and Seth Terkper is said to consistently resist pressures on him to release funds for unbudgeted spending.

Ghana's economy is under an IMF programme following a worrying budget deficit, fiscal indiscipline and further depreciation of the cedi. Government in 2014, also failed to release statutory funds to MPs, Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies and many other statutory bodies.

But Mark Assibey is defending Seth Terpker insisting that "if Terpker must go then the vice president must go".

He argued that the cedi's depreciation falls under the monetary control of the Bank of Ghana. Government's Economic Management team is also headed by the Vice-President, he noted.

"I agree that the economy is failing but if the economy is failing....appoint a new manager of the Economic Management team, then it will tell me it is an admission of failure", he said.

He said reckless spending in the 2012 elections "under President Mahama's watch after the demise of President Mills" is responsible for Ghana's economic woes.

"The spending like drunken sailors at the time, that is what brought us to this point....don't use [Terpker] as a scapegoat", he said.

Although he acknowledged that the President reserves the prerogative to hire and fire, the MP wants President Mahama to follow the examples of former president John Agyekum Kufuor and Jerry John Rawlings who gave their Finance Ministers a long tenure to manage the economy.

Assibey is convinced that the sacking of Terkper will demonstrate that the President is not interested in solving Ghana's economic challenges.

He claims president Mahama is in dire need of a man who is willing to stash taxpayer’s cash into an election campaign machine to be splashed around for votes.

Seth Terpker’s plans for fiscal discipline will frustrate access to funds, Assibey believes.