Accra (Greater Accra) 02 March 2002 - Mr Abudu Mumuni Seidu, NDC Member of Parliament for Wa Central, on Friday said it was high time political leaders avoided listening to what they wanted to hear and encouraged constructive criticism. He said it was necessary not to listen only to comments on political achievements but to have an ear on what really affected the people to inform their judgement.
Mr Seidu said this when he was contributing to the debate in Parliament for the approval of the financial policy of the Government for the year. He said the budget was the first original one presented by the NPP government since all their budgets have been interim ones but unfortunately it had failed to meet the aspirations of Ghanaians.
Mr Seidu said there was nowhere in the budget that real living wage and increase in wages had been mentioned while the people have been asked to pay for real cost of utilities.
He said another area of concern to the ordinary person and the majority was that the budget was too technical with terms such as macro-economics, decision point, HIPC, reduced inflation and economic growth, which were all shrouded in languages not easily understood and meant to throw dust into the eyes of the people.
Mr Seidu said there was, therefore, the need for the budget to be reduced to the simplest language for the benefit of the people for them also to make informed judgement.
He said if there should be an improvement in the quality of education; the ratio of teachers to pupils needed to be addressed. Mr Seidu complained about the disparity in the educational system between the North and the South and called for further assistance to improve the situation.
Mr Stephen Manu Balado, NPP- Ahafo Ano South said the law restricting the solicitor of the Internal Revenue Service from pursuing defaulters need to be reviewed by the Attorney General's Department and the Ministry of Finance.
Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, NDC-Wenchi West said there had been a lot of confusion about the issue of inflation and its reduction, adding that a rate of 21 per cent could not result in any way in the drop of prices of goods.
He said the government would be making a serious mistake in its programme of garment production if it failed to take critical look at improving the cotton industry in the North.
Mr Nketiah said a second look needs to be taken about the President's Special Initiative (PSI) to eliminate the various bottlenecks and ensure that the benefits trickled down to other forms of production and in other sectors.
He said the PSI should be diversified to incorporate other sectors instead of only concentrating on cassava and starch production since any external challenges from other sources could greatly affect the programme. Mr Nketia suggested the promotion of selected agricultural commodities where the country had a comparative advantage.
He said the grass cutter domestication programme was in the right direction if measures would be put in place to ensure its success since the craving for bush meat had resulted in the outbreak of more bushfires.
Mr Nketiah said the claim that the producer price of cocoa was increased was a fallacy since the price was still the below what should be paid the local cocoa farmer considering that the world price of cocoa was at present high.
Mr Andrew Adjei-Yeboah, NPP Tano South, said the forest has been over-exploited and it was, therefore, welcoming news that government had plans to develop plantations. He called for a national re-generation of the vegetation and for release of land especially depleted lands across the country.
Mr Adjei-Yeboah said the announcement of increased producer price of cocoa at this period was laudable since it would ginger farmers and they would gear themselves up.
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