"Government is committed to judicious use of resources"
The Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor has assured development partners of government's commitment to judicious use of resources under the Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDSB) for the development and well-being of the people.
He said as a step to that commitment, the public finance management has been improved and the Controller and Accountant-General's Department as well as the Ghana Audit Service are all strengthened to ensure efficient and timely budget reporting.
Dr. Duffuor, who was speaking at the opening of a three-day retreat for officials of the MDBS, National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and the Ministry in Koforidua on yesterday, said that the tax agencies are also being supported to mobilise more local resources for development.
He noted that since the inception of the MDBS, development partners have contributed cumulatively close to two-billion dollars with an annual contribution hovering around 300 Million dollars, which served as a major financing anchor for Ghana's infrastructure development.
Dr. Duffuor said there are challenges within the MDBS mechanism such as the high cost of mobilising development assistance, relaxation of the assessment mechanism, better ownership of the mechanism by government and the need to improve visibility of MDBS donors.
He urged the participants to provide a platform for frank and open discussions to enable them to find lasting solutions to challenges for effective development for the people of Ghana.
The MDBS, which began in Ghana in 2003, has 11 development partners including the African Development Bank, the European Commission, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, United Kingdom (UK), Canada, Denmark and the World Bank.
The sustenance of the MDBS is dependent on the maintenance of a set of underlying principles including continuing peace and respect for human rights, integrity in public life and accountability of the government to the citizenry by a beneficiary country.
Professor Newman Kusi, the acting Chief Director of the Ministry, said macro-economic indications showed that government will be able to meet the growth target of the 5.9 percent for the 2009/10 budget.
He said some of the indications are the down turn in inflation from 20 percent to 18 percent in this last quarter, upward adjustment in cocoa prices, appreciation of the Ghana cedi against major currencies and improvement in government's current accounts.
According to Prof. Kusi, Ghana's economy did not suffer much from the economic crunch due to the MDBS and urged the development partners to consider relaxing their mechanism which included procurement, disbursement and accountability.
Mr. Martin Saladin, Co-Chair of the MDBS, said he has confidence in the Ghanaian economy as it is operating within the framework and principles of the donor development partners.
He said challengers including the lack of harmonisation among development partners will be discussed at the retreat.
Source: GNA
