40-year development plan not solution —Kwasi Pratt

The Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Mr Kwasi Pratt Jnr. has stated that the 40 years development plan is not the solution to all of the country's problems.

According to him, there may be some value in long term planning, but the planning needs to address the need and aspirations of the people, solve their problems and has to be a plan that works.

Mr Pratt made these observations at a public lecture on the theme “A Long Term National Development Plan for Ghana; Prospects and Challenges in Accra over the week by Centre for Social Democracy, Ghana.

He said for the programme to work, the country needs to improve on how we use 70 per cent or more of the country’s tax revenue, which is spent on the payment of salaries of 600,000 workers out of a population of 27 million.

Adding that the country must fight for an increase in the share value of exported gold form the current three per cent for the benefit and to improve the living conditions of the citizenry, if not then we should forget about the 40 years development plan.  

Plan must be identification of principles

He said the plan should be on the identification of principles, the codification of those principles and the frame work with which those principles will achieve some declared objectives.

He also said a development plan must necessary be related to the realisation of the aspirations and the basic needs of the citizenry, such as potable water, education, shelter and workers’ salaries must be sufficient for their expenses.

Going forward, he noted that a development plan needs to have a strategy for the implementation of the plan which should be the resources needed to finance the plan to make the dream work.

“It should also consider where the resources are, what should be done to gather those resources and how we can spend those resources in other to have maximum effects and also proper monitoring to see to it that the whole programme is on track,” he said.

Hindrance

The Director General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) Dr Nii Moi Thompson, for his part said the problem in the country is not about planning but rather implementing.

He outlined some of the causes as frequent and unpredictable dissolution, formation and combination of ministries which sometimes required month or a year for realignment.

In addition he mentioned problems such as political and administrative leadership which were the transfer of technocrats as the temporary solution to addressing the problem of shortage of skill.

He noted that new government are forced to start their own project by neglecting the projects of the previous government due to the constitutional provision that mandated new presidents to within two years prepare a four year economic and social programme. — GB