AKUFO-ADDO’S PERFORMANCE IN EIGHTEEN (18) MONTHS TOO POOR – REPORT

As the first two years of the President Akufo-Addo – administration winds down in January (2019), only eight percent (8%) of the 153 promises made Ghanaians in the build-up to the 2016 election have been fulfilled, a new report by AFROHEART intelligence has revealed.

The report, which is to be released this week, said the Akufo-Addo campaign organization made 153 campaign promises to Ghanaians at different campaign stops, and in several documents, forming the basis of a social contract between the government and the people whose votes they desperately sought.

AFROHEART INTELLIGENCE (A&I) said it curated the 153 promises and grouped them into 24 categories including accountability in public service, anti corruption, cost of governance, economy, power, infrastructure, education and health care.

It said these were circulated among professionals in related fields to provide rating on a zero to 10 scale of performance on each promise.

The report shows that six promises regarding free secondary education and foreign relations have been fulfilled,while some action have been taken towards fulfilling nine promises regarding operations at the ports, agriculture, among others.

The report said, little or no action had been taken towards fulfilling 127 promises, while actions taken on 16 promises regarding the economy, power, governance, health care, education among others made the situation become significantly worse.

The report said “The Akufo Addo administration needs to understand that its biggest challenge is not diversifying and already diversified economy, but diversifying government revenue. This will mean widening the very limited tax net while delivering on the promises to cut the cost of governance drastically” . It described as “particularly untenable” that in the face of dwindling government revenue, the cost of running government had continued to increase to record level.

The report said, on the first two of these, there was marginal improvement by the government in comparison with its delivery in the first year, but the scorecard is still too poor to definitively proclaim any significant progress.

On anti corruption, a low 31 percent performance score was recorded. According to Afroheart Intel, the administration has somewhat softened its strong cedi policy in its its second year although the Central Bank had stopped short of floating the currency. It said new interest rate and other policies introduced which were initially met with delight from investors and the market, turned to be the start of a multi exchange rate system that bred a mix of frustration and confusion, while doing little to achieve the CB’s intent of reining in the distortionary effect that short sellers and black marketers were having on the cedi. People and businesses are unable to pay back loans contracted from the banks because of government’s inability or refusal to pay debt it owes these entities and businesspersons.

It also said “it is worrying that job creation, housing and social welfare are in negative territory. Today, there are no social safety nets and more and more people have fallen into poverty as a result of economic decline in the last 18 months.

According to the report, two key areas that affect Ghanaians today and have significant impact on the future of the country have also seen lacklustre performance from the Akufo-Addo administration. Education has a mere three percent performance, while health care has actually deteriorated by twelve per cent over the last 15 months. A feeling of disillusionment has risen across different part of the country.

According to the report, the second main theme which helped Akufo Addo win the election was the struggle against corruption. Today, anti corruption campaigners are more restricted in their operations than they were under Akufo Addo’s predecessor. Ghana has been languishing in the bottom of the latest Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.

“Afroheart Intel, believes that points raised in this report can serve as a useful reference point for the government and inspire policy makers to make relevant adjustments and allocate necessary resources towards tackling areas of critical national concern”.