Speaker inaugurates Parliamentary Platform

Accra, May 27, GNA - Parliament on Wednesday inaugurated a newly established Parliamentary Platform on Multi Donor Budget Support (MDBS) t hat will bring legislature closer to Development Partners and create a forum for constant engagement on policy related issues. The platform will create a forum for long-term engagement on policy issues and information sharing for the implementation of new strategies a nd strengthening partnership for parliamentary governance. It will also link up parliament with the Millenium Development Goals and the proposed Medium Term Development Framework and other national initiatives. Justice Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo, Speaker of Parliament, who inaugurated the Platform, said the vulnerability of the economies of developing countries, for that matter Ghana, was such that to augment the national budget with such initiative should be welcomed. She stated that since the inception of the MDBS support framework, significant supports had been extended to Ghana.

She said MDBS had committed $497 million to support Ghana's budget l ast year which according to her had pushed development in the country to an appreciable level though not to the level envisioned. She commended the government for its efforts in committing itself to making sound microeconomic policies, budgeting, public financial manageme nt, accountability to the citizenry, sustaining the peace and good governance .. "The declared official focus of the developing countries after the c old war on aids or development support is towards poverty alleviation and effective promotion of development," she said. She said, "There persist inherent problems which prevent the recipi ent country from taking total control of the steering wheel from the driver's seat." She noted that the preclusion of parliament which she described as t he embodiment of the will of the people in the MDBS in Ghana over the years had not gone down well with many legislators.

The role of parliament, she stressed, was crucial in the achievement of many of the objectives of the MDBS, adding that Ghana qualified for it because of its level of development in parliamentary democracy. "Parliament is the only institution vested with the power of oversig ht of the Executive which role the Forth Republican Parliament has played ov er the years in spite of difficulties," she said.

She hoped the developing partners would use this platform and the subsequent discourse to discuss and develop the requisite training for bo th members of parliament and staff of parliamentary services. Mr Cletus Avoka, Majority Leader, said the recognition of parliamen t by the MDBS was a marked departure from the past where it was a taboo for Development Partners (DPs) to talk to the legislature and commended them for reaching out to the law makers. He said parliament that drove the allocation of resources to finance activities under the MDBS had a reciprocal responsibility to ensure that the use of those funds reflected the intendment of parliament. He noted that parliament which was constrained in many ways in the execution of its mandate also faced many difficulties in the allocation o f resources to various sectors of the economy. "When budget is submitted parliament can hardly make significant alterations to what has been submitted by the executive," he said. He appealed to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning to make available relevant and timely information on the budget to enable parliam ent to effectively analyse the budget. Mr Fredrick Opare-Ansah, Minority Chief Whip, said the engagement between parliament and the DPs was long overdue as they recognized that parliament had a key role to play in the attainment of MDGS.