Align national plans with budgets - Dr. Botchwey

Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDCP), has stressed the need to align national plans with the goals and resource allocation in the annual budget.

According to him, successive governments have failed to develop and transform the economy because national plans do not align with the national budget.

Dr. Botchwey, who was speaking at the Ghana Transformation Forum, organized by Africa for Center Economic Transformation (ACET) in Accra said, “It is a fundamental pre-condition that we align our national plans with the goals and resources allocation in our annual budget.”

He said, “Successive governments in the country have all pledged their commitment to the idea of planning and transformation, but we have not quite succeeded in planning our economic lives as effectively as all these successive governments hoped to do.

“We started planning our national economic right from the first republic but somehow we have planned but the reality of our economic development has gone in different ways.

“We planned but national budgets that entail the allocation of resources, as well as the selection and choice of investment programmes, have often gone the other way.

Dr. Botchwey said the NDPC has not lived up to the high expectation that the constitution expects of it, stating that “the only way we can ensure effective planning that affects our annual development growth will be to ensure that annual investments programmes that are enshrined in annual budgets with resources allocated them are all aligned with the objective of our medium-term programmes.”

He said the NDPC aims to strengthen its research and analysis capabilities.

“We are humble enough to recognize that we need to enhance the capacity that we have and in particular are aiming to strengthen our research and analysis capabilities as the NDPC.

Only in this way can we provide the leadership in planning that the constitutions expect of us,” Dr. Botchwey said.

He added that, “we are going to need the close cooperation of all stakeholders including our development partners. We want your development programmes to be supportive of our national programmes.

“This requires active and continuing dialoguing with you in the implementation of these programmes.

It is our expectation that the ongoing discussion with the IMF to conclude a 3-year programme will provide the credible basis for a stable micro-economic framework.

“Once the programme is concluded next month, I hope then that we would have provided a micro-economic framework for effective planning,” Dr. Botchwey said.