The Trades Union Congress of Ghana's Secretary General, Joshua Ansah, reacted angrily to the government's decision to propose a debt swap scheme without first engaging the union.
According to Mr. Ansah, who was interviewed by Eyewitness News, "not even a single leader was contacted, and we all heard it from the Finance Minister's speech."
He said that the government's repeated claims that individual bondholders won't be impacted don't stack up because the purported investment firms and pension funds it is working with are actually simply holding or managing the bonds on behalf of private persons.
"The Government should be aware that when we discuss bondholding, a bond is nothing more than a group of people pooling their resources to pay someone to purchase or invest in a bond. Since the money is not a ghost's money but rather the money of the people, nothing prevents you from seeking for the people and asking them for their input before making any decisions. They ought to come and explain to us what exactly about this program is optional. The Government should have realized that individuals had pensions in SSNIT and Third Tier and that nobody can be singled out if they had taken us seriously. We are requesting that you not touch our funds since they are included in those bonds.
Additionally, he chastised the government for raising the Value Added Tax (VAT) by 2.5%, which he claimed would aggravate Ghanaians' already precarious living conditions.
"Now is not the time to raise taxes; now is the time to hold consultations so that people may voice their opinions about how they want to live. That is the adverse effect it will have on employees, and that is what we are talking about. We are still taking our old earnings, and you are putting additional taxes to it.