Government To Cancel 20% Of All Expenditure Lines In The 2022 Budget

Teaser: There may not be promotions for all government agencies after all this year. Even if there is, the average passed candidates over the years could be reduced by 20%

The minister of finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has announced that the government of Ghana expenditure estimates for the year 2022 would have a down ceiling of up to 20%. This will be applied to quarterly estimates of the approved budget beginning the first quarter of 2022. The finance minister disclosed this in a media address on Wednesday, January 19, 2022.

The finance minister indicated ”to ensure that government matches all expenditure to revenue inflows, all expenditure commitments in 2022 will be adjusted to match revenue collection,”. In the process, the finance minister disclosed rationalizing expenditure would anchor the fiscal consolidation going forward.

This announcement could have rippling effects on various sectors of the economy. With an already high unemployment rate in the country, there could be a further freeze on employment similar to the IMF conditionality implemented by previous governments.

This policy of freezing employment may already be at play with news of some aggrieved nursing trainees struggling to get themselves recruited along with their colleagues because their names were not added to the clearance list.

Aside from this announcement having the potential of giving signals to the investor community to gain their confidence, questions remain about how the state deals with the acts of financial malfeasance in the auditor general’s report which could retain a lot of revenue and improve the social sector of the country.

Read: Nursing Training Allowance Beneficiaries To Refund The Allowance or Suffer For It?

To the general public, this could be a signal to expect less in the times to come.