Lies and propaganda wouldn't conceal failure of Mills

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) says no amount of lies and propaganda would conceal the fact that this administration has woefully failed to deliver on its core mandate of ameliorating the hardship of Ghanaians.

The party said far from putting the records straight, the press conference addressed by Mr. Fifi Kwetey, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, last week, merely told lies and spewed out more propaganda at a time the people of this nation were looking for the way out of the quagmire of economic hardships.

At a press conference in Accra to respond to an earlier exposÃ© by what the government said was to put the records straight, delivered by Mr. Kwetey, the Deputy Communications Director of the NPP, John Boadu, told journalists in Accra that Mr. Kwetey lied about the Mills-administration's achievements.

Taking the sectors one after the other, in which the Deputy Finance Minister said the government had chalked unprecedented achievements, Mr. Boadu advised the policy makers to take a tour round the country to hear the cry of Ghanaians from the very poor roads provided in many communities across the country.

He told the media that routine maintenance, upgrading and resurfacing of town roads were regular activities undertaken year in and year out. 'It is only desperate propaganda that would capture routine road maintenance, resurfacing and upgrading as 'critical economic infrastructure'.'

Mocking the government's achievements in the road sector, Mr. Boadu said real critical economic roads, such as the Nsawam by-pass to Apedwa, on the Accra-Kumasi Highway, remained undone, because in the view of government, the NPP administration left no money to complete them. 'Apparently, the NPP left money to complete only routine upgrading,' he stated.

The Deputy Communications Director said the notion that the NPP left no money for road construction, and that the Kufuor administration left the NDC a staggering ¢35 trillion of arrears, was discounted by the government's own communication on the state of the economy to the International Monetary Fund.

On Page 27, table 2B of the document prepared by Fifi Kwetey's own ministry, the following is captured: 'Ghana: Summary of Central Government budgetary operations, 2008-13, arrears outstanding in 2008 was GH¢1.353 billion, 2009 was GH¢1.592 billion and 2010 was GH¢2.158 billion.

'Even if we are to believe Fifi Kwetey's lies, is it not surprising that despite these arrears, the Mills/Mahama government still found money to pay for the whopping and totally unexplainable judgment debts? These people have no shame,' Mr. Boadu screamed.

He noted that one of the biggest road projects since the 4th Republic is the Tetteh Quarshie- Mallam Road, otherwise known as George Bush Highway, secured for this country by the NPP, as a result of good governance.

He said the Kufuor administration succeeded in taking the Ghana Railways Company, which has been on the divestiture list throughout the 11 years the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and eight year NDC period, off the list and put it into operation, from Accra to Asoprochonaa in Tema. The NDC only extended it by the last five kilometres to the Tema Port.

'Yet, Fifi Kwetey claimed all the NPP did about the railway line is to 'huff and puff'! Truth as usual, has been put on its head! Lies are the main agenda of this NDC government, so should we listen to the President or the former Propaganda Secretary, Mr. Boadu lamented.

Mr. Boadu said the government's claim that it had improved agriculture and the energy sectors was reflected in the spiraling cost of food items and power outages, which, in recent times, tend to affect the whole country.