How A Political Party In Government Obtains Money For Election Campaign Should Be The Public Concern

Election spending in the history of Ghana has not been that too strange but the proof of the unprecedented influence of funds in election-campaign season in the 4th Republic during the year 2005 upwards has been an issue of worry by numerous political economists in Ghana.

In careful analysis of this historical trend, empirically deduce that, the political economic health of Ghana retrogress by some margin of percentage which are not constant value during the beginning of the 4th Republic. After any election season there is that retrogression and a gradual bounce back in an average of 1.5- 2years recovery from recession, which also largely depend on the innovative tactics of the Central Bank in using monetary instrument to salvage the economy back to stabilization.

Due to such problem, it is trendy that new Presidents begin their first crop of public lectures heaping the collective blame of the tattered economy they inherited on their predecessors, therefore expect Ghanaians to bear with them to overcome such recession with their kind of innovative fiscal policy they presume could invoke the change they seek for.

It was noted that World Bank on the 11^th April, 2015; reported by Ghana Business News, expressed fear in 2016 election spending that could cause slippage in IMF Programme implementation. However we were later re-assured by Mr. Ebo Barton-Odoro as the first deputy speaker of Parliament on the 9^th April, 2016 reported by Ghana News Agency that Parliament is exercising a strict oversight role on national purse to ensure that, there was no extra spending by Government in the election year.

This article seeks to focus a little bit away from government purse spending but rather focuses on spending by a Political Party in Government; if the report of Ebo Barton-Oduro speech is anything to write home about.

It is easy for a political party in government to spend from government coffers without being critically questioned due to the sovereign power in its possession. To critically make a case, my essay will build its analysis based on present central government actions, promise and the future of Ghana’s economy after election.

The Central Government and its allied agencies are promising the people of Ghana about a turnaround, a booming economy, entering the election and after election. The question is what has fundamentally changed in our economic figures warranting a kneel-jerk promise of a bright future from a vacuum.

This draws an attention to very important statement from influential statesman like Hon. Kwesi Amissah Arthur Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana requesting for the devaluation of the Ghana cedi, followed by Hon. Seth Terkper the Finance Minister of the Republic of Ghana publishing a document to justify that the economy of Ghana is indeed turning around.

Whether these figures make scientific sense, read more from my paper title THE SCIENCE OF TERKPERNOMICS LACKS ECONOMIC CREDENCE Published by Modern Ghana Web. Now a sudden reaction of Dr. Henry Kofi Wampah to refuse to go for a second term in office as a governor, counting on his skills and in-depth understanding as a refined financial economist in place of a political economist, should speak a volume of a very important direction on how Ghana economy is intending to drive too, towards the coming election.

As at the time I was working on this article, I could economically speak with an authority that the economic figures and microeconomic fundamentals of Ghana has not changed to avouch the overnight promise of this nature, which we are psyched to expect in the near future, considering the instance and the political will of the central government to align to the IMF Programme despite the temptation of slippage. Yet the spending of the Political party in Government now is in a higher level. Some politicians ignorant on monetary theories will debunk my argument and propagandize a vague source as means of their spending budget, but not willing to attest with a proof.

It could easily be a Plan A to inflate most of the infrastructural budget to save funds for election spending, particularly monumental infrastructures lacking a scientific link to economic expediency and investment viability, and even their mishandling of this delicate strategic information, spew out to the public and was captured as corruption to save the situations.

When Plan A is not working effectively, I expect Plan B to be rolling, that is a strategy to hoard funds just that its benefits would be for the rich few to the detriment of the larger masses. The possible nature of Plan B, if it is carried out on the consideration of the publication of this article, the mass future effect and how to defend yourself as an individual or a business man from such strategic effect in medium and long term is the argument this paper seek to establish.

If the new Bank of Ghana Governor will succumb to political influence and employ the method of money printing to finance unplanned budget, which no finance economist will put his credibility on, being a calamitous economic monetary move due toits injurious effect on both medium and long term economic market.

If this is done, we should not waste energy to question the credibility of the Governance as he is more of a political economist than financial economist whose ultimate is to maintain power at all cost and later find future ad hoc measures to solve mess created. When such strategy is initiated it gives birth to the Plan B, I am talking about now.

What will be the effect; surprisingly the liquidity ratio of the market will rise, therefore people may presume that, the promise of the turnaround has started, but truly its an economic boom that will lead to a recession for more than 4-years considering the politico-economic settings of Ghana as the time I am writing this article.

To create wealth in a vacuum without following the Central Bank Reserve Rules which determine the liquidity ratio of the market, furthermore having no quality secondary market domestically to count upon as a capital market, is the path leading to the devaluation of the cedi as the Vice-President earlier intimated.

Now the burst of this short term economic boom will spiral into an unprecedented inflation that will require more than 4 years to avert, the longest one in the history of the economy of Ghana is about to happen. If Plan B is allowed to be carried out, your years of labour and toll culminating in savings in Ghana cedis will vanish into the thin air.

This is to advice that, when Plan B is rolled out, convert your savings to hard currency, it could be dollar, british pounds sterling etc, to save the value of your money to avoid your hard labour earn in the currency value of cedis loose to the thin air.

E. TweneboahSenzu, DBA, Ph.D.
Research Professor of African School of Economics
Director of Bastiat Ghana Institute
Monetary Economics in Simple Language Vol.1