The Member of Parliament for the Tamale North Constituency, Alhassan Suhuyini, has blamed the country’s debt crisis on the government’s disregard for due diligence.

Mr Suhuyini said the mistake Ghanaians made was asking fewer questions and holding trust in their government which has now driven everyone into an economic and debt ditch.

Appearing on The Big Issue on Citi TV, on Saturday, February 18, the Tamale North lawmaker said the economic situation of the country would have been different if the government had taken its time to do due diligence with some of the loans it contracted because “it is important to recognize that there is everything to lose if we sacrifice speed for due diligence and it is the reason why we are where we are today.”

He alleged that the government quickly went vague and swept away concerns raised by the Minority with regard to its reckless borrowing all in the name of looking good ahead of the government’s engagements with the IMF.

“When the issue of ESLA being used and treated as a footnote in our reporting system came up, we did not pay much attention to it so we did not apply the breaks on borrowing when we should have because we were assured that it was not part of our public debt.

“When the issue of Synohydro came up, we were again dismissive of the need for us to properly scrutinize it and this is where we find ourselves now.”

“It is this tolerance of the government’s speed, sometimes not well-thought through to have an IMF programme that has brought us into this situation,” Mr Suhuyini added.