NDC made 501 promises, ‘only 7 showing metric’ - Cudjoe

The governing National Democratic Congress has not made good most of the promises listed in the 2012 manifesto, founding President of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Franklin Cudjoe has stated. Mr Cudjoe, who was a guest on a Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue, Saturday April 23, indicated that the best way to evaluate the performance of government is to assess the fulfillment of assurances given prior to winning the elections in 2012. The country will head for elections in November. President John Mahama has a little over six months to end his first term. According to Mr Cudjoe, “We have been combing through the manifesto as you will recall. We found out 501 promises with only 7 of them having some form of a metric.”

 Elaborating on four of the promises, Mr Cudjoe indicated that: “Single-digit inflation obviously has not materialized; an 8% GDP growth annual has not also materialized. There was a budget deficit figure also in the realm of a single-digit, which obviously has not also materialized.” He continued:

“They promised 5,000 megawatts of power, but as of July 2015, it was approximately one hundred and eighty-something, which accounts for 0.16%”. He, however, admitted that there had been some additions to the power pool from that time till 2016, but added that he was yet to calculate and add the figure to the previous one.

 To him, not even the NDC can boast of the economy’s performance as one of its best achievements. He criticized government for inflating the cost of the renovation of the Tamale and the Kumasi Airport runways, but lauded its efforts on the Ridge Hospital project.

 “I do not think the Kumasi runway should cost about twenty-something million when in actual fact, it should cost about three [million dollars]. The Tamale Airport should not cost $100million but about $25 million. But the Ridge Hospital was really done well; I do not think it was blown by cost,” he added.

 Government spent US$23,829,247.4 on rehabilitation of the Kumasi Airport while the cost of renovation and upgrading of the Tamale Airport was estimated at $100 million for the runway, alone. A statement issued on 9 March 2014, by the then Minister of Health, Sherry Ayittey pegged the cost of expansion and refurbishment of the Ridge Hospital at $250 million.