Ghanaians have said that they believe 70 per cent of their tax contributions are being wasted by the government, according to a representative perception poll conducted by the Institute of Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI), a public research think-tank.
The “Government Wasteful Spending Crumbs of Government Waste Report, 2022” was launched in Tema and revealed that, on average, the government wastes GHS0.70 out of every GHS1.00 received as revenue.
The poll was conducted across Ghana between August and November of this year with 2,000 respondents reached via ILAPI’s website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp pages through random sampling.
The poll showed that 92 per cent of respondents believed that the government was wasting taxes, which influenced the citizens’ trust in the government.
The projects and policies the citizens perceived as most wasteful of tax included the National Cathedral, Presidential Traveling, Government Appointees, banking sector clean up, the fight against galamsey, Saglemi housing units, Ex-gratia, and Youth Employment Programmes such as YES and NABCO, among others.
ILAPI’s Executive Director, Mr. Peter Bismark Kwofie, stated that statistically, 90.5 per cent of Ghanaians have lost trust in the government due to corruption and a lack of accountability and transparency in the implementation and execution of policies and programmes.