a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, yesterday shed light on savings the government of President John Atta Mills had made since its assumption of office last year.
According to the deputy minister, a substantial sum of GH¢8 million had been saved through prudent and cost-saving measures embarked upon in the past year.
That development, to us, is very significant for a variety of reasons.
It is worth pointing out for a start that at the beginning of January last year, the country had run up a huge deficit estimated at about 20 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which posed serious challenges to our socio-economic development and progress.
To bring it down to levels that would be conducive to the sustained growth and health of the economy, the government chose to tackle the problem from its expenditure angle, since raising substantial revenue to fund the huge deficit in the short term did not appear to be prudent or sustainable.
It is commendable that in painting the true picture of the state of the economy and counselling Ghanaians to embrace austerity, the government itself led by example and substantially cut down on its expenditure, a large part of which could be tagged profligate expenditure.
We are particularly elated at the significant savings that have been made in respect of the realignment and elimination of certain ministries and the substantial cut back on both the number of presidential trips and the size of delegations.
We cannot but commend the decision of President Mills to attend the opening ceremony of the World Cup in South Africa with a 14-member delegation whereas in the past 35 people were taken to such events.
The importance of this lies in the example that should show from the leadership to the people.
When the people see their leaders living the austerity and sacrifice they preach, they (the people) will be encouraged to embrace the sacrifices being espoused so that all hands will be on deck to steer the ship of state back to safe waters.
On the contrary, if the people see their leaders living lives of vulgar opulence while admonishing them (the people) to continue to sacrifice, they cannot and will not readily be co-operative in that regard.
While commending the government for this feat, we urge it not to rest on its laurels, as many more need to be done to purge the ministries, departments and agencies of waste, inefficiency and corruption so that more savings will be made to spur national development.
We hasten to counsel that the need to realise this noble objective of securing savings from the various sectors of national life is a bounden duty of all.
Every Ghanaian has a role to play in either unmasking corrupt or greedy elements who continuously siphon our resources to satisfy their lustful ends or stopping such nation wreckers before they execute their evil deeds.
We wish to put on record that the onus rests squarely on us as a people, and not on our so-called development partners, to generate the requisite level of resources to prosecute our national development agenda.
This is especially the case today in the wake of the financial meltdown when even the developed economies are struggling with their finances and cannot give as much to meet our development needs.
No one will do it for us but ourselves and our leaders must continue to lead and show us the way forward.
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