Ghanas new President, John Atta Mills, has promised to cut wasteful government spending in his first State of the Nation speech, BBC online reports Thursday.
The government of the potential oil-rich West African nation needs to make drastic cuts to get by after it discovered that spending before last years election had left the country “broke”.
President Atta Mills said he would cut back on the presidential jet, wages and civil service training seminars. But he did not mention a key election promise to reduce the price of fuel.
– What is called for is savings on our part to use those savings in the productive areas of the economy, said President Atta Mills, noting that Ghana was drastically in need of “austerity”.
Last month a member of the new presidents transitional team said that Ghana was “broke”. The government of former President John Kufuor had exceeded its forecast budget deficit for 2008 by nearly seven times, Hanna Tetteh said.
