Dr Ebo Tucson, an Economist and Senior lecturer at the University of Ghana has stated that, the government should not take it up on itself to provide jobs for Ghanaians immediately the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deals comes to an end on April 2.

Speaking to the Press, Dr Tucson said that the Akufo Addo administration should not be quickened to lift the ban of employment by the public sector.

He said, “We shouldn’t,  once we leave, defreeze public sector employment because when we do that, then we inflate the wage bill. That is one of the main reasons for expenditures that normally cause us to run huge fiscal deficits.”“We should rather provide the environment for the private sector to thrive; for the private sector to generate employment and jobs that the economy needs,” he added.

Dr Tucson also advised that the government should consider its spending ahead of 2020 general elections in order to live within the limit of the budget.

He said, “If you look back over the fourth republic, with the exception of President Kufuor in his second election, where he was able to maintain the budget and not overrun it, all other government’s we have had have overrun their budget… The politicians, you know, when things heat up and things have to be done, that is when we sacrifice all these things and overrun the budget.”

In 2015, the three-year loan agreement concluded between the Government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) contained agreements to freeze employment in government departments except for those under education and health.

This was part of measures to stabilize the economy and effectively manage the public wage bill.

The agreement was also expected the government to limit the nominal increase in the total wage bill to no more than 10 percent.