President Kufuor: Let the information flow

President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday stressed the need for information flow from the various sector ministries to keep the people abreast with the government's activities and programmes.

He said information flow must be their priority and asked the Ministry of Information to put in place the necessary machinery that would ensure that the people were well informed to appreciate the government efforts in nation building in order to sustain their trust and confidence.

President Kufuor, delivering the keynote address at the Fifth Ministers' Residential Workshop, which opened at GIMPA in Accra, said "the people must not only hear and feel what we are doing but there must be information flow on what the government is doing and appreciate them to sustain their trust and confidence".

He cited the purchase of Peugeot cars for the Ghana Police Service from Nigeria and said if information had flowed properly, questions that were asked would not have arisen. The Minority in Parliament had requested Parliamentary approval for the purchase of the cars.

President Kufuor explained that between January and March this year, about 50,000 tonnes of cocoa were smuggled through the western border to La Cote d'Ivoire and the Police could not do much because they were handicapped due to lack of logistics.

The government appealed to the Nigerian government, which readily requested the Peugeot assembling plant in Kaduna to release the vehicles to Ghana and work out modalities on their payments.

He said letters of credit had been established for the purchase of about 500 vehicles for the police as promised by the government while some funds had been made available to begin some of the priority projects in the road sector in the country.

"When the people know we are truthful and sincere to them, they would understand. We must show confidence in our work."

President Kufuor said there were two things, which the government owed Ghanaians - to establish a culture of good governance within their four-year mandate and also lay solid foundation to transform the economy to improve their lives.

He said the government was on the right track because the difficult decisions taken in the past year had paid some dividends and stabilised the economy. However, there was more room for improvement. President Kufuor said it was possible for the government to turn things around dramatically because the most essential ingredient in an economy was the people.

He added that with Ghanaians being hardworking and anxious to learn, the missing link was an honest and inspired leadership. "I believe the government can and must offer this leadership. It is time for us to move up a gear. From now onwards our language should change. It should shift from we shall do this or the other one to we have done this or we are doing this or the other one," he added.

President Kufuor said government was determined to grow the economy, adding "we aim to double the size of the economy by the year 2008. This is an achievable goal".

He reiterated his call on them to work as a team and said no one should be a weak link to retard the progress of the entire team. "Time is not on our side, we do not have the luxury to sit and contemplate and to bicker among ourselves. I believe we can deliver, our compatriots believe we can deliver. There is nothing to hold us back, let us get on with it."

The three-day workshop, being attended by ministers and members of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), would discuss topics like "Maximising our impact as ministers", "Working with the media", "Civil service reform".

It is to assess their progress, review their activities, design and develop the planning process with achievable goals for the country. Mr Jospeh Henry Mensah, Senior Minister, said members of the NDPC were included in the workshop to assist government in the process of formulating a National Development Planning Programme for the country.

He said after two years, the government was obliged by the Constitution to present its national development programme to Parliament which must include the actual programme, how to translate those intentions and principles into action and implement them into a sustainable plan. "It is the implementation that determines whether we have succeeded or not, " he added.