German Ambassador to Ghana Daniel Krull has advised the Government of Ghana to cut down on expenditure by reducing the size of government and other non-essential expenditures occurring in the face of worsening economic challenges.
Mr Krull in a blunt speech to Government said that considering the size of the government of his country and that of Ghana, it is important that Ghana cuts down the numbers even further as it struggles to address its economic challenges, for which it is seeking an International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“I only can compare with other countries like mine and I can come to the conclusion that there is a huge number, the number is much higher than in my country, so that may bring me to the conclusion that there is room for improvement,” he advised the Government in response to its request that Germany prevails upon China to give Ghana some debt relief.
Ghana is hard at work seeking to meet IMF conditionalities for a 3 billion bailout. This includes an external debt restructuring aimed at making Ghana’s debt sustainable. Ghana has appealed to Germany to persuade China, which it owes $1.7 billion, to agree to a debt restructuring.
But Ambassador Daniel Krull believes that Ghana must demonstrate that it is tackling the economic challenges by cutting down expenditure.
“It depends very much on what kind of expenditure you are looking at.
And I am convinced this is true. If I look at the budget of the German Foreign Ministry and the German government, I am convinced there are important parts that can be cut without hurting economic development.
And I am convinced without going into details this is also true for Ghana,” he asserted, adding that “there are certain expenditures that can be lowered substantially and make an important impact…I cannot go out to the international community, say I need help but I am not willing to cut my own budget expenditure. I have to be careful not to cut into social expenditures that are destroying lives and families.”
Ghana has been shut out by the International lending community for unsustainable debt levels and has had to seek an IMF bailout to stop the economy from collapsing
