2011 budget to provide a three year ceiling for MDAs

Accra, Nov. 1, GNA - Mr Seth Terkper, Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, said the 2011 budget statement would provide a three year budget ceilings for Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

"The first year is the actual allocation and the subsequent two years are indicative allocations," he said. Mr Terkper was speaking at Dodowa on Saturday during the second pro poor pre-budget workshop organised for parliamentarians and MDAs.

The purpose was to strengthen the oversight role of the Special Committee on Poverty Reduction to enter the budget cycles early enough in order to influence social policies and financial resources allocation proposed by the MDAs for pro poor projects and programmes in the 2011 budget.

The workshop was also to enable the Committee to strengthen the linkage between proposed pro-poor programmes and projects of MDAs and the need for increased social protection for the poor and address social inequalities and the ways in which the Millennium Development Goals will be attained by 2015.

He said the offices of the MDAs were given better information for planning and managing their activities.

Mr Terkper announced ceilings of the 2011 budget allocations for sectors and some ministries - Education, GH¢1,477,730,827.08; Health, GH¢406,642,439.62; agriculture, GH¢66,649,789.26; road, GH¢81,412,698.21 and water GH¢16,618,211.63.

The rest were the power sector, GH¢4,289,021.81, Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, GH¢3,285,651.72 and the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, GH¢16,322,383.16. He said other areas earmarked for special intervention in the 2011 budget were LEAP (Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty) GH¢12.00 million; National Youth Employment Programme, GH¢16.79 million; Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), GH¢25 million; Free School Uniform and Text Books, GH¢10 million; School Feeding Programme, GH¢50 million and Capitation Grant and Basic Education School Certificate Examination Subsidies, GH¢36.00 million.

The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture said the outlook for the 2011 budget identified the low level of irrigation, mechanization, post harvest management and lacked of improved technology finance as the cause of low productivity.

He said the performance of intervention in the past had also shown that there was the need for coordination between interventions and implementing agencies.

Mr Clement Humado, Chairman for Special Committee on Poverty Reduction, said parliament must be a strong advocate for the deprived else their situation worsen.

He said there must be adequate budgetary allocations to ensure that their situation did not go bad.

Mr Humado said care for the vulnerable in society was key to finding solutions to their problems.

He noted that building high class roads was not the only way to develop the road net work of the country and explained that the use of feeder roads was critical to rural development. He added that remote areas that were cut from main towns should be connected through feeder roads.

On electricity, Mr Humado said government must introduce solar energy to the rural areas for them to be able to develop cottage industries since it was not all towns and villages that could be connected to the national electricity grid.

He said government must resort to the use of renewable energy. Dwelling on the objectives of the workshop, Mr Humado said the workshop would facilitate the Committee and deliver on its mandate of ensuring that government implemented its policies and programmes responsive to the needs of the larger group of the population who are poor.

Mr Akolgo Bishop, Executive Director of the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), said there must be measures to make budget very transparent for the purpose of accountability on the part of the government.

ISODEC is an organization that strives for social justice towards a life of dignity by promoting rights and accountability.