Govt's concern not for budget, but for funds to buy votes-Gabby

quist

August 23, 2015 9:53 PM

President John Mahama's refusal to grant members of the Ghana Medical Association their conditions of service is not because he wants to keep the budget intact, but to free up enough funds for the coming elections in 2016.

Director of the Dankwah Institute, Gabby Othchere- Darko has alleged that National Democratic Congress government is planning to use funds from the 2016 budget to buy votes in the 2016 general elections.

According to him, President John Mahama's refusal to grant members of the Ghana Medical Association their conditions of service is not because he wants to keep the budget intact, but to free up enough funds for the coming elections in 2016.

President Mahama, earlier this month, declared government's resolve not to overspend the budget in order to satisfy the wage demands of labour associations, after the GMA went on strike to press home demands for better conditions of service.

But the president of the Danquah Institute says that is false. " President Mahama's refusal to grant the doctors their conditions of service is not because of any IMF condition. The IMF explicitly gave an exception to their conditions on expenditure and the wagebill. They made exception in the case of health and education. So the Mahama administration cannot hide behind that to refuse the doctors their demands."

Speaking on New File, on Saturday, Mr. Otchere-Darko added, " It is not about the budget, because the doctors said clearly that their demands are on the 2016 budget and not that of 2015, yet still government was not ready to give a better offer. In fact after government heard that the doctors' demands were for 2016, they came back with a worse offer than they had originally tabled."

Mr. Otchere- Darko then concluded that government had its own plans for the 2016 budget. " This clearly shows that government has its own plans for the 2016 budget. The NDC government only thinks about the next elections. They want to free up the 2016 budget for the elections. They want to use the funds from the budget to buy votes. Otherwise, what's the explanation for government's conduct."

The Ghana Medical Association, on Friday, called off a strike they had been embarking on for the past 20 days when negotiations for their conditions of service with government broke down.

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