A recent Project Financial Management training workshop organized by AKUS Consult at GIMPA, Accra, brought together various members of the Ghanaian and Liberian public service. The 5-day workshop facilitated by high ranking financial analysts of international donor organizations and AKUS Consult, focused on project financial management, procurement, risks related to project management, disbursements and reporting. The goal of the workshop was to equip participants with skills and tools to enable them deliver competently on various projects and to share knowledge with participants from other countries.

Participants agreed that the workshop had exposed them to new understandings of the World Bank and other donor organizations. Upon completion of the course, they noted how much more competent and equipped they felt and appreciated the knowledge they had obtained on the key aspects of their project documents. The participants were from the Lands Commission in Liberia, VRA in Ghana, Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Finance, Ghana and Liberia. Others were from the Ghana Water Company Limited, the Civil Service and the Ministry of Public Works, Liberia. According to one of the participants, his standard of work he believed would be tremendously improved by the skills he had learned at the workshop.

Mr. Emmanuel Bruce-Attah, managing partner of AKUS, explained the reason for organizing the workshop. He stated that “a glaring weakness in the development strategy of most African countries is the fact that many public service personnel, although highly educated and qualified, lack job-specific training and tools to enable them efficiently perform their duties. This results in inefficiency which causes development goals to be constantly delayed.” According to Bruce Attah, “it is necessary to build capacity among such personnel and provide them with training and knowledge relevant to their jobs.” The next international workshop is scheduled for February 2011.

AKUS Consult is a financial and management consultancy based in Accra.

-By Deborah Ahenkorah