The Executive Director of the Alliance For Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson, says the ruling Akufo-Addo led government is sick.
Speaking on Ahotor Fm’s morning show Adekye Mu Nsem discussing the strike by the Organised Labour, Mr. Thompson told Citizen Kofi Owusu “This government is sick, this Akufo-Addo led government is sick and the sickness is lack of credibility, this government is suffering from a serious illness of lack of credibility”.
“The President opened his mouth to tell us there will be no haircut and even if there would be a haircut, it won’t affect pension funds, but they’ve classified all the pension funds from tier 1 to tier 2 are all going to see those security restructuring”.
Organised Labour Strike
Organised labour has declared an indefinite strike from December 27 to drum home its demand for the government to exempt pension funds from the Debt Exchange Programme (DEP).
The industrial action followed a one-week ultimatum given by organised labour for the government to rescind its decision to include pension funds in the DEP, else workers “will advise themselves”,
Announcing the strike in Accra yesterday, the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah, said the government had failed to heed the demands of organised labour.
The demands, he said, were communicated to the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, on December 12, this year.
“The government has refused to grant us our request that all pension funds be exempted from the DEP. We have decided firmly that all workers of Ghana are going on strike on December 27.
“We will be on strike until our demand that all pension funds be exempted from the DEP is granted,” he said.
Mensah Thompson warned that the most dangerous thing to happen to the economy is for pension funds to be touched in the debt restructuring.
“Pension funds are there for a reason, and that’s why we call it social security, infact in the labour front across the world they don’t joke with pensions” he said.
Debt Exchange
The Minister of Finance had announced that the government would implement a voluntary DEP as part of measures to reduce the debt burden and give the government some breathing space to deal with the fiscal challenges facing the country.
With the DEP, domestic bondholders face steep interest rate cuts and the lengthening of tenure on their investments.
Investors in dollar-denominated Eurobonds will also have to contend with both interest rate cuts and the loss of up to 30 per cent of the principal amounts invested.
In addition, domestic debt investors will be asked to exchange their existing securities for new ones that may offer a zero coupon in the first year, five per cent in the second and 10 per cent in the third year.
Holders of short-term debt securities, comprising Treasury bills of 91 days, 182 days and 364 days, will be excluded from the DEP.
Figures from the Central Securities Depository show that pension funds hold six per cent of the government’s domestic debt.
Story by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh / Ahotoronline.com
