Pursuing a national development plan to sustain a steady growth economy

The need for a consensual long term national development plan has been described as the best way to sustain a steady Ghanaian economy and also achieve a progressive developmental growth. Nonetheless, currently Ghana does not have any long term national development plan. Since the second republic up to date, the country had depended and implemented numerous development agenda often in the context of IMF and World Bank projects. Ghana as part of its programme with these institutions has had to develop a medium term plan to reduce poverty and promote growth. Prior to the New Patriotic Party era, the former President Rawlings National Democratic Congress administration pursued the vision 2020 agenda. The NPP Government led by former President Kuffour when they took office, also went for the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) agenda after which they pursued the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy 1and 2. Now the current NDC Government is pursuing a Shared Growth and Development Agenda. “Both the New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress Governments pursued a World Bank backed developmental agenda and did not work with any national development plan,” declared Hon. Kwame Amporfo Twumasi, a Parliamentarian and a former Deputy Energy Minister in the erstwhile New Patriotic Party Government. In the foregoing, the need for a homegrown national development plan cannot be overemphasized. According to him, “the non existence of a national development plan is the cause of abrogation of contracts by succeeding governments with white elephant projects scattered across the country, and abysmal infrastructural and developmental growth. This is a serious indictment on our democratic path and development agenda. As a nation there should be a cohesive direction for us to pursue.” He insisted that any political development policy or agenda should have its roots in the country’s national development plan to ensure sustainability. He emphasized that the need for a national development plan has become more pressing with the introduction of oil money into the Ghanaian economy and the passage of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act. The Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011, Act 815, provides the framework for the collection and management of petroleum revenue in a responsible, accountable and sustainable manner for the benefit of Ghana in accordance with article 36 of the Constitution and related matters. The Act provides that the usage of the oil revenue should be guided by a medium-term development strategy aligned with a long term national development plan, absorptive capacity of the economy and the need for prudent macroeconomic management. However, subsection 3 of Act 815 provides that where the long-term national development plan approved by Parliament is not in place, the spending of petroleum revenue within the budget shall give priority to, but not be limited to or relating to: agriculture and industry; physical infrastructure and service delivery in education, science and technology; potable water delivery and sanitation; infrastructure development in telecommunication, road, rail and port; physical infrastructure and service delivery in health; housing delivery; environmental protection, sustainable utilization and protection of natural resources; developing alternative energy sources; the strengthening of institutions of government concerned with governance and the maintenance of law and order; public safety and security; and provision of social welfare and the protection of the physically handicapped and disadvantaged citizens. The law allows the Minister of Finance to prioritize four sectors for spending oil revenues. In the Supplementary Budget of 2011, the Minister prioritized amortization of oil and gas loans, road infrastructure, agricultural modernization and capacity building. However, Hon. Amporfo Twumasi, who is also a member of the mines and energy committee of parliament, pointed out that this provision when taken in the context of the existing situation would mean that successive government, in the absence of a national development plan, can decide to prioritize different sectors of the economy without continuing with what its predecessor started. Agreeing with this assertion, Mr. Ishmael Edjekumhene, a member of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, emphasized that “we need to develop a non partisan long term national development plan that successive governments would be obliged to use and contribute towards its implementation. After that if all of us agree that for example the oil revenues should be used to revamp the aviation sector or any other sector of the economy, it becomes a national agenda that we have collectively decided to pursue.” The primary essence of the creation of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee established under the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011, Act 815 was to ensure successful utilization of proceeds from oil and gas exploitation to secure the greatest social and economic benefit for the people of Ghana. This requires Government Accountability to an informed public. He indicated that “as things stand now, any top of the head prescription now might not be in the best interest of the country”. He explained that before the country choose one sector or the other of the economy to invest in, there has to be a sound basis why for example aviation should be looked at as opposed to the railway sector or the agric sector. He said some people even argue that the oil money be shared to the people so that everybody may take their share. “For each of the uses of the oil money there are tradeoffs, benefits and costs associated with it. We can only do that when we have a clear plan, and any money we have from the oil we channeled it into that agenda for the next seven or ten years to move Ghana forward. If we have a national development plan, political parties would not tell us in their manifesto what they are going to use our oil money for but rather what they can do with the oil money to achieve the agreed national development plan,” he concluded. But Deputy Finance Minister, Hon. Seth Terkper, although agreed in principle the need for a consensual long term national development plan, indicated that there has been continuity and consistency in all the previous developmental agenda that previous administrations had pursued since independence. According to him, “since the Gold Coast era to now, despite the polarization of the country, there has been a common trend in areas that our development has been centered around.” He explained that road networks, the railway system, ports and harbours have remained the key infrastructural focus of the economy irrespective of who is in power, adding, “If we talk about agriculture, we are talking about the Volta Basin as a basis for food security.”