LET US FACE THE FUTURE…

Former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, has proposed the conversion of some boarding senior high schools into community day schools in order to cut down costs on running them under the free senior high school programme.

I welcome wholeheartedly this call of the former minister. In an article, ‘Taxes, Free senior high school And the Change, which I wrote in 2018, I argued amongst other things for a tweaking of the free senior high school policy. I agree broadly with the calls of the former minister, though on the specifics, I have important points of departure. I do not agree with the former minister about the wholesale conversion of some boarding schools into community-day schools. However, I think government should seriously consider the proposal of making the boarding aspect of free senior high school fee-paying. I am rather hesitant to advocate for the immediate implementation of such a tweak though.

 There is a glaring inequality in the distribution of educational facilities in our country, so implementing such a policy would be discriminatory against students from poor economic backgrounds. Distribution of the very best secondary schools with the best facilities in our country are not evenly spread. I am also hesitant to advocate for a mean-testing or scholarship approach in identifying such students from poor backgrounds because of the bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption associated with it.

The government as a matter of urgency must scale up the provision of facilities in all secondary schools to level-up the inequities between the traditional grade one schools and the others. This will in the medium-term level-up the quality of secondary schools across the country. We can then treat boarding schools as a luxury to be accessed by the financially capable. Until then, I don’t see how we can get around that conundrum though I must say, I am open to learning more about the details of what the former minister has in mind.

An Afrobarometer report released by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) suggests that Ghanaians are willing to pay higher taxes to support the country’s development. I must say this is quite a revelation for me. 72% of respondents said they were willing to pay more in taxes to help finance the country’s development from domestic resources rather than through external loans. 70% of respondents, however, said they found it difficult to explain how government utilised tax revenues.

Ghana’s tax-to-GDP ratio of 14% is woefully low. That is 2.5% lower than the African average, 9% lower than the average for Latin America and 23% lower than the Caribbean average. I have often wondered what the optimal level of taxation was prudent for a country like Ghana to spur economic growth.

Whereas I broadly support the introduction of new taxes by the government in raising revenues to support development. I am not sure the vertical increasing of the taxation burden on the already-heavily taxed is the way to go. Why are we not rather focusing on widening this tax net horizontally? I do not ask this question as a criticism of the fiscal or tax authorities in Ghana but a genuine intellectual inquiry. Why have we not made any substantial attempt to move away from our less-progressive tax system?

Tax policy formulation and implementation in Ghana is a highly complex task. It is a tightrope between the devil and the deep blue sea. It is a difficult tweaking between political and economic realities. Why have all the policy proposals and novel solutions geared towards blocking revenue leakages over the years failed if the latest Afrobarometer report is anything to go by? Why haven’t we rolled out property taxes across the country despite the boost in real estate prices over the decades? Perhaps, the fiscal strait that has been imposed on us by the pandemic may finally force us to have the conversation we have conveniently side-stepped for years.

I chanced upon a conversation between a group of friends in the course of the week concerning corruption within the Ghana police service. The rot and corruption in the police service are well-documented in our history. What I don’t understand is why the police hierarchy itself isn’t doing anything about sanitising its image. Maybe I am naïve about these things but why would anyone wear the uniform symbolising the authority of the state and yet debase the integrity of the service in such brazen manner?

Our police service remains sadly, a remnant of a colonial police force with modern, democratic policing ethics sorely lacking in the attitudes of most officers. Perhaps part of the problem stem from the training given to our police recruits. It is laughable how we seem to still keep premium on physical attributes rather than cerebral capacity of applicants.

Our law-enforcement culture isn’t also helped by a largely docile citizenry, slow-paced judiciary which means most average citizens will rather pay a bribe to a police officer than go through the whole judicial process.

This means the most effective way of reforming the police can only come from the leadership of the police force itself. Part of the problem may stem from the excessive powers of the president in the appointment and promotion of senior police officers which has created a situation where the loyalty of most senior police officers is to the president rather than the state.

The last thirty years have revealed more than any other period in our republican history the glaring defects of our liberal democracy which we have deliberately ignored since the return of multi-party democracy in 1992. I use the word ‘deliberately’ in a provocative manner because I am convinced our political class knows the right thing to do and have simply decided to turn a blind eye to the need for sweeping reforms. I cannot blame them much. The system as it is configured now works perfectly for their wellbeing. However, if the political class really care about the survival of the democratic future of this country then I am afraid this is the time to act on this crucial question until it is too late.

Fitch solutions, the research arm of the ratings agency, Fitch is projecting that the GDP of Ghana will hit 70 billion dollars from 62.8 billion dollars by the close of this year. This will mean the per capita income of the country will be moving above 2200 dollars by the close of the year. Indeed, the agency further predict that the size of the economy will hit 83 billion dollars by 2023. With the Ghana Statistical Service yet to conduct this year’s population and housing census, I would hold on any projection of what this will mean for our per-capita income.

I am, however, curious to know how much of this growth is trickling down to the larger population of the country. With rising income inequality in our society threatening the very foundation of our political stability, I am forced to ask if we should be taking statistic such as the one projected by Fitch any serious again. How much of this projected growth will trickle down to the average Ghanaian? What is the government response to income redistribution? Well, I merely hope to ask questions to provoke conversations and action, if I am lucky…