A Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana says government’s proposal to include pension funds in the debt restructuring offer is not part of the agreement UTAG had with government when they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

According to him, the MoU signed was to explore alternative arrangements that would help the government navigate itself from the current challenges.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Monday, Prof Gyampo said “Our alternative option has nothing to do with this kind of arrangement that it is proposing that our pension funds be touched again.”

This comes after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta on Friday urged the Board of Trustees of pensions funds to allow for pension funds to be included in government’s new proposed debt restructuring offer.

According to him, the new proposal is aimed at alleviating the cash constraints on the government in the coming years, while fully compensating the Pension Funds for the value of their current holdings.

But, Prof Gyampo said the alternative provided was to call government to cut waste and not its expenditure.

Also, the option provided was for government to reduce its size by collapsing some ministries and reducing the number of ministers to about 30 to 40.

According to him, government must deal with the pervasive practice where “literally it is like we in this country keep fetching water with baskets.

He added that if government follows the alternative provided, then it would have no business touching the pensions and savings of workers.

Meanwhile, the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has rejected the government’s new proposed debt restructuring offer, which includes pension funds.

The Association in a release issued on April 17 maintains its earlier resistant stance during the implementation of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.

“The NEC of UTAG held an emergency meeting on April 15, 2023, and upon careful deliberations, resolved to reject the New GOG Proposed Alternative Offer for Pension Funds,” portions of the statement said.