The General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Anthony Yaw Baah, has called on the government to cut expenditure on all non-essential government spending.
According to the TUC, the current economic downturn can be improved should the government divert funds from non-essential spending towards more productive ventures to generate employment and revenue.
Speaking at the 2023 May Day celebration parade at Bolgatanga, the TUC General Secretary urged the government to halt spending on non-essentials like the National Cathedral.
He suggested that it would serve the country better if the project was converted from a cathedral to a national hospital instead.
“We have to change the situation ourselves as Ghanaians. We believe strongly that government can lead us out of this crisis, and the government can do so by cutting expenditure on non-essentials including the need to stop spending our hard-earned revenue on a national cathedral.”
“The president has always said he wants to create another Notre Dame in Ghana so we can attract a lot of visitors but we disagree. In fact, comrades, it will be better to convert the project into a national hospital,” he said.
He further reiterated calls for the government to reduce its size to save costs.
“Mr. President you can also reduce the size of your government. Ghana has too many ministers and deputy ministers.”
This year’s May Day celebration is on the theme; “Protecting incomes and pensions in an era of economic crisis: Our responsibility.”
Dr Baah again cautioned the government not to go against its promise to not include pensioners in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
“Mr. President please, do not touch our pension funds…Protecting pensions is our responsibility and we take it very seriously, to us, our first responsibility now is to continue to protect our pension funds from the domestic debt exchange programme.”
Responding at the same May Day parade, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured organised labour that the pension funds of its members are safe as government continues its Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) aimed at securing an IMF deal.
Speaking he noted that government is aware of the impact of the Programme on workers and as such aimed to explore other beneficial options within debt sustainability limits with the cooperation of both Government and Organised Labour.
He said, “In undertaking the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, we have been very mindful of its potential impact on the pension funds of workers. We will not act in any way to short-change workers in protecting their pensions.”
President Akufo-Addo added, “In this regard, within global risk management practice, the options should include diversifying the portfolio of pension funds from the current 70% in government paper to real sector investments including rail, housing, urban transportation, motorways and airport as is done by other pension funds.”
This comes after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, in April urged the Board of Trustees of pensions funds to allow for pension funds to be included in government’s new proposed debt restructuring offer.
The Minister in a signed release explained that the new proposal is aimed at alleviating the cash constraints on the government in the coming years, while fully compensating the Pension Funds for the value of their current holdings.
However, the request was met with opposition from many Ghanaians including organised labour.
GNAT stressed that the association will not back down on its agreement with the government for their pensions to be exempted.
