The National Democratic Congress (NDC) says they are going to impose austerity measures on its ministers and other government appointees in their next administration.

According to the Chairman of the NDC’s 2020 Manifesto Committee, Professor Danso Boafo, this is in line with the party's return to its social democratic roots.

"We need to go back to our social democratic roots. Social democratic rules compel us to engage in the kinds of lifestyles that will ensure equality, equity, fairness and justice in society," he said.

"And we are going to ensure that whoever we appoint under the John Mahama administration abides by the kinds of austerity measures that we ourselves are going to impose on ourselves".

He said their first move towards imposing these stringent measures on themselves will be the drastic reduction in the number of ministers, ministerial aids and presidential staffers in the next NDC administration.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said should they win the 2020 general elections, their government will reduce the current number of ministers by at least 40.

He said: “We’re going to do away with a large number of presidential staffers, ministerial aids and so on and so forth. And we’re going to impose a lot of austerity on our own selves. A minister’s life is not going to be the kind of luxurious life that we are used to seeing.

“We’re cutting a lot of perks, we’re cutting a lot of long convoys, we’re cutting a lot of international travel, business travel, and first class travel. We’re going to cut all these things.”

Professor Boafo also stated that the austerity which is in line with their social democratic ideology will ensure equality, equity, and fairness in society while saving the government cost.

 He said, “We need to go back to our social democratic roles. Social democratic roles compel us to engage in the kind of lifestyles that will ensure equality, equity, fairness, justice in society.

“And we’re going to ensure that whoever is appointed under John Mahama government abides by the kinds of austerity measures we ourselves are imposing. Nobody is going to force us to do it.”

He acknowledged that recent economic conditions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic had also informed their decision to take this path to ensure the success of their administration.

He said, “We realise that economic conditions imposed by Covid will compel us to do it otherwise we’ll fail.”