Former Finance Minister and Executive Director PFM-tax Africa Network has questioned the competency of the Akufo-Addo government.

Speaking on JoyNews’ NewsFile on Saturday, Seth Terkper said any government that fails to anticipate a crisis cannot manage an economy.

“This is a government that attributed all those difficulties to nonperformance. Incompetence. And so if you do not anticipate crisis, you can never run a government for four years without crisis.

“If you do not anticipate crisis, you will dismantle Stabilisation Fund, you will dismantle Sinking Fund, you will dismantle all those structures that we’re putting in place. And that is why we are where we are today.”

He acknowledged the fact that problems did exist before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019.

Citing some of these problems, he said “We had a disruption in gas supply from Nigeria for almost 3 years. We gave it one word, Dumsor. And it was critical. We had the continuing effects of the global financial crisis which started in 2008. And therefore, the full effect of the global financial crisis; 2007 and 2008. It means the full effect was in 2009.

“We had 2014, 2015, the collapse of crude oil prices. Crude oil prices hit $115 per barrel. $112, $115 per barrel in 2011 and 2012. What did we do with one oil field? That was the win for that we used to sinking fund, the stabilisation fund. $370 million of which is being used today and was called upon for Covid-19.”

Meanwhile, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta addressing Ghanaians on Thursday, March 24 announced a number of measures by the government including a 50 per cent cut in fuel coupon allocations for all political appointees and heads of government institutions, including SOEs, a 15 per cent reduction in fuel prices and a 30 per cent cut in salaries for all Cabinet Ministers and heads of State-Owned Enterprises, amongst others to cushion Ghanaians.

Addressing concerns about the country's economic status, and measures the Finance Minister has put in place to mitigate the situation, Mr Terkper bemoaned that these measures are not enough to curtail the current economic crisis.

“We have three oil fields. The excuses are just too much. We were able to achieve that with one oil field. What did we do with three oil fields before Covid-19?”