Economist Professor Charles Ackah has called on government to address issues of expenditure wastage in institutions whilst ensuring efficiency.

According to him, contrary to calls for government to cut its expenditure, government rather needs to increase its expenditure in these critical times to be able to cater for the growing needs of Ghanaians.

Speaking on PM Express Business Edition, Prof. Ackah said the notion that government needs to cut its expenditure will not help to increase revenue, adding, calls on government to reduce its expenditure will rather lead to a reduction in the social interventions that the ordinary Ghanaians enjoy.

“I know some people are calling for cutting expenditure. I totally disagree because our expenditures are not that high, rather there is wastage. So what we should be calling out for is efficiency in government expenditure and plucking the wastage and corruption”.

“If you don’t do that and you call for blanket cut in expenditure, we know they will not reduce the size of government. So eventually, they [government] are going to cut the expenditures that go to the poor. We need to look at what expenditures are useless or inefficient, where are the wastage so that we can cut them,” he said.

He furthered that the global economic conditions require that governments increase their expenditure to keep their economies afloat.

Ghana is yet to complete negotiations to secure an IMF bailout to restore and stabilise its ailing economy, while calls on government to reduce its expenditure to support the economy.