Prez Mahama swears in NDPC Board
President John Dramani Mahama has stressed the need for a national development plan that would outlive various political regimes.
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"It allows for better focus and agreement by all about what we should do and where we should be at any given time," he said.
Speaking after swearing in the new governing board of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) at the Flagstaff House yesterday, the President noted that the lack of long-term development planning had been a concern for the people.
The NDPC is a constitutional body that advises the President on national development planning policy and strategy. It is also charged with the responsibility of coordinating and regulating the decentralised national development planning system.
The 34-member governing board is under the chairmanship of Professor Kwesi Botchway.
Constitutional review revisited
President Mahama made reference to the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) recommendations on the NDPC and said they gave hope for the strengthening of the NDPC to carry out its functions.
During the constitution review, proposals were made with regard to the operations of the NDPC. These recommendations sought to revamp and reshape the NDPC to end wastage and encourage different administrations to follow national agenda to facilitate national development.
Economic planning
President Mahama stressed the need for the commission to bring true meaning to economic planning, which was now its responsibility.
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Decoupling of economic planning from the ministry was done with the aim of ensuring that the country's economic development planning was situated in the right sector.
President Mahama admitted that there were some constitutional issues and instructional challenges that undermined the work of the commission and pledged to work with the new governing team to resolve them.
"Already I have requested for a review of the government’s white paper on the NDPC and a team of experts are working on the transfer of the economic planning function from the ministry to the NDPC," he said.
"Through the hard work of the commission, we have in fulfilment of Article 35(5) of the Constitution, prepared and submitted to Parliament the coordinated programme of social and economic policies 2014-2020 christened ‘Agenda for Transformation’," the President added.
He expressed the hope that the new team would build on the success of the previous one and congratulated the previous governing boards on their good work.
The Chairman of the NDPC, Professor Kwesi Botchway, pledged that the team would work hard to enable the commission to fulfil its constitutional duties.
He said the process to position the NDPC as the economic planning entity for the state had begun.