Scrutinise government’s priority on use of public purse

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Constituency in the Central Region, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson, has charged Ghanaians to scrutinise the government’s priority of public consumption over the infrastructural development of the country.

He explained that most of the earmarked funds that were introduced by previous governments such as the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) were as a result of the rigidity of the country’s budget over the years.

In other words, most revenue generated by the state was spent on public consumption. For that matter,there was the need to establish special funds that would help generate revenue to focus on other relevant sectors of the economy.

Capping

He indicated that the capping of funds by the government through the passing of the earmarked capping and funds realignment bill in May last year only defeated the purpose for which those earmarked funds were set up.

It had also increased the public consumption of government as such revenues are used to pay allowances of teachers and nurses. This is against the priority of improving the infrastructural capacity of the country which had a greater impact on socio-economic development.

Illegality

According to him, it also raised the question of legality as the revenue for which the taxpayer had to pay for was not used for its intended purpose. He cited an example with the capping of the National Health Insurance Fund.

“I am sorry to say that it is illegal. It is illegal to say that the act establishing the insurance fund states exactly what the insurance funds can be used for. And there is nowhere in it that states that you can use GH₵500 million to pay nurses allowances,” he said.

“It is not fair for the ordinary Ghanaian because if I am paying a levy for fixing the road, then you should use the money to fix the road” he stated.

Conference

He was speaking on the topic, “the implication of infrastructure projects on socio-economic development in Ghana” at the annual conference of the Project Management Professionals organised by the Institute of Project Management Professionals (IPMP) in Accra.

The theme for the conference was, “Infrastructure projects on socio-economic development in Ghana”.

Mr Forson underscored the importance of infrastructure on socio-economic development in Ghana when he said it defined how the economy moved.

Maintenance culture

With regard to the maintenance culture of Ghanaians, he said Ghanaians must not only blame politicians for the poor maintenance culture of government infrastructure, but also blame professionals who were tasked to manage those infrastructure.

“Truth be told, Ghanaians are not serious with our maintenance culture at all. We always want to blame the politician for the poor maintenance culture of government infrastructure. Don’t blame the politicians alone; blame the professionals or contractors who are in charge as well,”he said.

Project design

For his part, the Director of Finance and Administration at the Ghana National Petroleum Authority, Mr Amuyaw Addo who spoke on the topic, “Poor mindset of Ghanaian citizens on Maintenance Aspect of Infrastructure Project in Ghana,” emphasised the need for inclusion of maintenance as part of project design.

“We as project managers should understand the context in which we work. If we understand that there is a maintenance culture which is poor, we need to relate the success of our project to maintenance. And if we want to relate maintenance to success of projects management, it has to start with the planning as well,” he said.

Induction

At the conference, two persons were inducted into the IPMP as fellows. They were Mr Agyenim Boateng Adjei and Dr John Yaw Amankrah.

A code of conduct which stipulated the rules and regulation for members of the institute was also launched.

IPMP

The Institute of Project Management Professionals (IPMP) is a Licensing and Regulatory Professional Body in Ghana incorporated under the Companies Code, 1963 (Act 179) as a private company limited by shares duly registered as a professional body in accordance with the provisions of the Professional Bodies Registration Decree, 1973, National Redemption Council Decree (NRCD) 143 as Chartered Project Management Institute (CPMI) to train professionals in project management with NRCD Registration No. PB 68.