President John Atta Mills has lashed out at the Kufuor administration for spending more than it generated. In his first public comments about the recent petroleum price increases, President Mills said the Kufuor administration has plunged the Ghanaian economy into so much debt that companies which previously supplied the country with crude oil on credit are no longer willing to do so. “The previous government was spending more than it had collected. When you have a situation like this, you can’t balance your books and you leave a big hole in the economy. “We did not want Ghanaians to get the impression that we were out to offer excuses. We are putting the economy together,” he stated. President Mills said government had no better alternative than to increase fuel prices as it strives to put the economy on a sound footing. “We have had to increase fuel prices, we did not do this to cause pain to Ghanaians but given the circumstances, we had no alternatives,” President Mills told the press at the Castle, Osu. He intimated that Ghana’s credit-worthiness has suffered as a result of the country’s unsettled debts with oil companies. “It is even difficult to get companies to supply us crude because they are owed and therefore there is the need for us to ensure that we get enough revenue to be able to liquidate these debts,” President Mills emphasised. The president’s comments come amid scathing criticisms launched at the Mills administration by the opposition for deceiving the citizenry. Former deputy Energy Minister K.T. Hammond in an earlier interview with Joy News chided government for the hike and said the president must come out to justify it. Consumers now pay GH¢1.11 for a litre of petrol and GH¢1.12 for a litre of diesel while transport fares are up by some 17%. But the president believes had government failed to increase fuel prices the economy would have suffered shocks. Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com