Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has affirmed that Ghana as a country needs money and every citizen of this country can attest to it.
The Minister who was speaking on Citi TV’s ‘Point of View’ Wednesday evening indicated that the Akufo-Addo led administration met a budget deficit of 9.3% from the erstwhile Mahama government.
He said, “You can’t get away from the numbers… As to we declaring, we don’t have money, every Ghanaian knew that we’re broke when we came into power…”
Speaking on the road sector payments and clamour for roads projects, Mr Ofori-Atta indicated that for the past two months the government has been putting so much into the roads sector.
He averred that the delay in payment of the contractors was because the government was authenticating the contracts awarded to these contractors when they came into office.
Mr Ofori-Atta reiterated that the government within the past two months has been paying road contractors about 1.6 billion cedis.
He said about 80% of the 1730 contractors the government owe will be paid before the new month starts.
“What I have been able to do is 1.2 billion for road funds, 1.6 billion for the government of Ghana (GoG)… that in effect goes to bring some liquidity in the sector and construction can begin,” he stressed.
Mr Ofori-Atta further debunked the assertion that monies to be paid by government does not include interest.
“I am not sure that is totally true because the Interim Payments Certificates (IPCs) we have seen are the IPCs we are then paying,” the minister said.
He noted, “Contractors have always felt that government does not pay on time and therefore load up in the pricing anyway… there is an issue of legacy payment that we are doing very well to pay.”