Nduom expresses concern about Government's $3.0 billion loan

Accra, Aug. 26, GNA - Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, CPP Presidential Candidate for Election 2008 on Friday, expressed concern about the manner, process and speed with which the Executive and Parliament are considering such a huge loan.

He said the hopes of millions of people in the Western Region and other regions were being raised high in anticipation of immediate benefit when the reality was that a lot of project preparation work still needed to be done before any funds were spent on the ground.

Dr Nduom expressing the concern in a statement issued in Accra said "With regard to the $3 billion Chinese loan, it is not a matter of being against development or even the taking of loans by government."

He suggested that such a huge loan should have been put in the hands of a special purpose body such as what was done with the Millennium Challenge Account.

"Then detailed studies, design and preparatory work could have been done in advance so that beneficiaries and the whole nation would know when and what to expect real work and benefits to happen", he added. Dr Nduom stressed that 93All of this go to reinforce my long-held bel= ief about the need to reduce the authority of the Executive and holding it accountable to the people while strengthening that of the Legislature; giving power back to the people through election of Local Government functionaries; and strengthening public sector institutions". He pointed out that Parliament was weak and unable to serve as an effective pillar of checks and balance to the Executive.

This, Dr Nduom said was largely due to the fact that the current Constitution robbed Parliament of independence and muscle. "Our Parliament is decidedly toothless, is kept in perpetual poverty and reliant on the largess of the Executive. This makes it lack initiative and forces it to do the bidding of the Presidency. "We need to learn some lessons from what is going on today with the $3 billion Chinese loan and amend our Constitution to make it possible for Parliament to negotiate with the Executive to get better laws, contracts an= d agreements passed that would be beneficial to the nation and its people,"= he added.