General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Titus Beyuo, says it is rather unfortunate that public sector workers are expected to pander to government’s claim that there is no money to fully meet their demands amidst the ongoing economic crisis.

According to him, calls for public sector labour unions to reason with government due to the harsh economic conditions in the country are entirely misplaced and should be aborted.

He said government’s failure to fully diagnose the cause of the economic crisis in the country and further call for a national dialogue in an effort to find a solution is the barrier that is preventing public sector workers from reasoning with government.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said he lack of a conclusive diagnosis on what is ailing the economy has fuelled the public sector’s loss of confidence in the government to meet their demands.

“As I sit here today if you ask me what the cause of our current economic crisis is, I don’t have an answer. I’ll be worried if government doesn’t also have an answer because the explanation of the Ukraine war, Russia whatever doesn’t hold water. Because if you follow how we adduce our clinical evidence if the etiology is similar, the symptomatology should be similar.

“If it is Russia-Ukraine, then it should be the same thing across the globe. Our situation is worse than almost every other country. So I want government to give us a definitive diagnosis, what is wrong? What caused it? And then now call on us to come and reason,” he said.

He noted that while it is being peddled that the wages and salaries of public sector workers are draining the national coffers, the largest expenditure of the government is loan repayment.

“Your assertion for us to reason with government that they cannot find salary to pay, Aisha, it doesn’t hold water. Why do I say so? Because the largest expenditure on government now is not wages and salaries. I made this [statement] somewhere last year, I made this [statement] somewhere this year that they keep letting all of us believe that it is the public sector employees that are draining this government or the country of its resources.

“We have borrowed money excessively, others have said it’s reckless; I’m not an economist so I cannot use the term but excessively. Our largest expenditure is on loan repayment. Could that be the etiology or the cause of our problem? Has anybody diagnosed what the problem is first of all to ask us to help solve that problem?

“Aisha, I bet you’d be very very worried if you’re lying on a sick bed about to die, your doctor admits that you’re in a critical condition you’re going to die but I don’t know what is wrong with you, you will not be happy,” he said.

Dr. Beyuo has joined calls for government to initiate a public dialogue to interrogate the cause of Ghana’s ailing economy and what solutions are available for the government.

He said this should be done before public sector workers are called to reason with government.

"It is the reason why others are asking for second opinion. Because if you cannot make the diagnosis, can you enlarge the set of doctors that will come in to make the diagnosis? Could we have a nationwide dialogue for people to help make the diagnosis?

“Because without the diagnosis, anything short of that there is no hope because we need a diagnosis. What caused the problem? It is definitely not Russia-Ukraine, it is definitely not Covid, something caused this and may have been exacerbated by these two factors. Somebody must tell us what has caused it and ask the nation to join in finding a solution after we have identified the cause,” he said.

Till then, the Ghana Medical Association is asking for the conditions of service to be improved taking into consideration the current state of the economy and the fast depreciating cedi.