Let’s watch public spending during election years

Development theorists have always found it difficult to put a tab on what constitutes development.

Until recently, development was seen in the form of skyscrapers, the number of conquests a king had made or the goldmines he owned.

Today, development is about the well-being of people; not in terms of the number of physical projects but how those projects impact positively on the people.

Development initiatives are not able to satisfy all at the same time, as the ends are always competing for scarce resources.

That is why, to succeed, development activities must be prioritised to achieve value for money and meet the needs of the people.

We seem to be making very little progress in addressing the infrastructure decay in our part of the world because politics becomes the critical factor for initiating development projects. But the objectives of development are lost the moment the political dividend becomes the focus of our agenda, since the projects are hurriedly done, and in most cases standards are not met.

 Most of the country’s road projects are clear manifestations of our money going down the drain. With this mindset of our government, the electorate use development projects as bargain chips.  

While the government waits to use projects such as schools, hospitals and roads as a bait to attract votes in an election year, the electorate also think that they have the upper hand when they demand their ‘pound of flesh’ during election years. 

That is why the Daily Graphic agrees with the call by Prof. Felix Asante, the Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, on the government to stop inaugurating projects upon projects only when it is election year.

Of course, we are not saying that the government must not embark on projects that will inure to the benefit of specific communities or the country as a whole.

We believe, though, that it is not good enough for any government to deliberately time the construction of facilities or their inauguration to coincide with an election year so that it will have an advantage over its opponents.

We urge the electorate to refuse to be hoodwinked by politicians who hide behind the provision of amenities to ‘steal’ their votes. After all, it is not only in election years that we need facilities or have to get projects completed.

It is time for us to require accountability from all the political stewards we have put in charge of our welfare, and when they fail to deliver, we must use the power of the thumb to vote them out of office.

We urge our governments to make development a continuum to avoid over-spending during election years while meeting the expectations of the electorate.