LAST THURSDAY, Finance Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo announced at an ego-boosting press conference that government is going to receive a total of $253million in HIPC relief this year.
He said $96 million (?749 billion) of the amount would be lodged in the HIPC main account at the Bank of Ghana while the remaining $157 had been cancelled and need not be paid. That $36.9 million of the amount to be lodged in the HIPC main account had already been received by the government.
Consequently, the government had decided to use $19.2 million of the HIPC benefits to reduce the domestic debt overhang and the remaining $76.8 million (?599 billion) for poverty reduction activities, especially for infrastructure for basic education, primary health care facilities and community water and sanitation projects.
This is obviously good news for a people who are already straining under the conditionalities that go automatically with opting for the HIPC initiative. Just before the press conference it was common knowledge in town that the banks did not have much fluid funds to play around with.
Reducing domestic debt means contractors are going to smile to their banks and on their return their workers would also smile. Government’s insistence that it be allowed to use part of the HIPC relief to pay off domestic debt was a stroke of genius. The contractors themselves may use their profit for ostentation but the payments to their workers, majority of whom are from the local communities where the projects take place, constitutes pure poverty alleviation.
Basic education, primary health care infrastructure, as well as community water and sanitation projects are things that touch our people at the grassroots. If properly executed they would number the government among those who are development oriented and ingratiate the party with the rural communities. This will stand it in good stead for 2004.
The NATIONAL CONCORD will appeal to the three ministries favoured with this first tranche HIPC relief – Women and Children’s Affairs, Trade & Industries and Employment and Manpower Development and the 110 District Assemblies, which together have received ?117 billion to be dispassionate in the selection of the communities to host the various projects. It should be devoid of greed, pettiness and partisan political considerations. There have been many reports of communities across t
he country where classes are held under trees, where people trek multiple kilometres to reach a clinic and drink only elephantiasis-infected water. These are the areas, which should benefit from these HIPC relief first tranche projects.
NPP stalwarts would do well to resist the temptation to corner the projects into their favoured communities which do not really need them. Of course, existing infrastructure can be expanded where the need for it exists, but nothing should be pulled down and rebuilt as an ego trip.
The Finance Minister warned that the HIPC funds should be used only on approved projects. We do hope he would not end it at that. NATIONAL CONCORD expects him to institute practical steps to ensure that the publicly declared wish of government is strictly carried out.
We would also expect that the list of projects which he has requested from the District Assemblies would not be treated as official secrets, but published for all Ghanaians to know and help hold the assemblies accountable.
It is said that there are many a slip between the cup and the mouth. Just that money has been released for certain projects does not mean that those projects have been executed. But maybe, we are worrying unnecessarily. A government looking forward to re-election in the next 27 months, and eyeing a possible two-thirds majority in Parliament, need no advice from anyone on how to conduct its development programmes.
Its own ambition would ensure rectitude.
And so let it be with the NPP!
