Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has warned against what he calls the “overreliance on the IMF as a moral referee” of Ghana’s economic policy.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition, he said Ghanaians must resist being swayed by the institution’s public endorsements, describing the Fund as structurally incapable of being a credible watchdog.

“A conflict of interest, right?” Bright Simons began, tracing the roots of what he sees as a systemic flaw.

“On the one score, the IMF is an intergovernmental organisation. So it’s the governments themselves that have come together to create a fund to support themselves.”

According to him, it is “unrealistic” to expect the IMF to act as an honest critic of government performance when Ghana itself sits at the table of power within the Fund.

“There’s a limit to it. At the end of the day, Ghana goes to the board of the IMF, represented by our governor, and pushes our case. So an intergovernmental body can never be an effective check on a sovereign government.”

This fundamental conflict, he said, must shift the burden of scrutiny elsewhere.

“If the IMF is serious, there has to be a role for civil society in a much more central way. We can play that role. But they don’t really want that, because it’s still an intergovernmental organisation.”

The IMANI Africa Veep argued that the structural issues run even deeper.

“The IMF designs the program,” he explained.

“So the IMF itself has a very strong incentive to say the program is doing well, because they’re part of the design. To expect them to be too loud and negative is just unrealistic.”

And then there’s the third layer: perception.

“The IMF’s success formula is to get other parties to think that things are doing well,” Bright Simons said.

“They signal to the investor community. They signal to the multilateral development banks that things are looking good. So, if the IMF is doing that, how can they be too negative?”

He believes this creates a façade that undermines local accountability.

“Anyone who relies entirely on IMF policy surveillance it’s not mature enough. It’s not solid enough. It’s hollow oversight.”

Bright Simons called for Ghanaians to reframe the IMF’s endorsements.

“To what extent should we place the IMF in a position where it becomes the blesser and endorser of our performance?” he asked.

“Because of you, we see that the minister will say, ‘Look, the IMF says we are great.’ Kristalina [Georgieva] will praise the president, and it’s all over the place.”

He urged citizens to take those endorsements with scepticism.

“We have to become less and less willing to be taken in by such theatrics. We must ask: who else is saying something?”

But therein lies the problem.

“That ‘who else’ is what we’re missing,” he said.

“Because of the nature of our domestic surveillance mechanism. We, the civil society groups, our ability to influence the elite in Ghana, the business elite especially, is limited.”