Ghanaian Migrants Information Services - Come Again World Bank

I was amazed and astonished at the breathtaking hypocrisy and double talk of the World Bank Country Director, Mr. Ishak Diwan. Just last week in this publication Mr. Diwan said that he questioned the high spending of the last government and even went to the extent of saying that some of the spending that took place under the NPP was "poor quality" spending.

I find these comments by the World Bank Country Director absolutely breathtaking and scandalous to say the least.

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't this the same World Bank who just prior to the 2008 elections claimed that the NPP had put Ghana on a sound economic path and that the NPP had displayed prudent economic management. Also isn't this the same World Bank that said on the eve of the NDC assuming office that Ghana was flat broke?

Also I think it is double talk of the highest order to criticize the spending of the NPP during their tenure because again isn't it the same World Bank who coerced the NPP to go HIPC? And as a result of the last NPP administration going HIPC, wasn't it the World Bank who decided what the government is allowed to spend?

As I have said many times before when one adopts or follows blindly policies or mechanisms conceived by the World Bank, they have great influence on how and what money our government borrows from them is spent. This explains why key sectors of the economy like Health, Education and Agriculture have?been left to ruin.

"He who plays the piper calls the tune" should be a proverb that should sink in to the minds of Ghanaians as it is the World Bank and their failed policies that have crippled Ghana.

For those naive amongst us who doubt what I am saying, please read a very interesting and profound article by a former World Bank/IMF Chief Economist, Joseph E Stiglitz who left the World Bank because he was unhappy as to how the World Bank was implementing some of these failed and flawed policies that I have been talking about.

This article is from the mouth of a former World Bank/IMF Chief Economist, so he should know what he is talking about.

The article is entitled "why we should fear the World Bank/IMF": this can be found by googling it on the net.

I profoundly disagree with Mr. Diwan's theory that somehow the year 2007/2008 was a "good year" for Ghana.

May I remind Mr. Diwan that far from being a "good year" the year 2007/2008 was characterized by power outages from January 2007 till October 2007, low manufacturing and agricultural output, increase in fuel costs which as a result led to high food and utility bills, high interest rates deterring businesses especially small businesses from borrowing, high balance of payments deficits as a result of too much imports and finally high expenditure on certain projects.

All the spending that was done by the previous government was done with the knowledge of the World Bank so it is highly disingenuous for Mr. Diwan to come out with his outrageous remarks.

What these remarks imply on a subliminal level is that the World Bank is playing psychological mind games with the government and people of Ghana as to the real state of our economy because as I have mentioned many times before that the World Bank will never develop Ghana but rather the opposite as has been shown by flawed World Bank/IMF policies like SAP's, PRP's and HIPC.

Therefore we should take with a very big pinch of salt what comes out of the World Bank's mouth because they have nothing good to offer the people of Ghana.

What our government needs to do is to tread extremely cautiously with the World Bank/IMF, always keeping one eye opened and implementing policies that will economically enhance and empower the people of Ghana rather than making it a slave of the World Bank.

Source: Dr. Kwame Osei