Accra (Greater Accra) 5 Feb 99

Expenditure during the government's Medium Term programme (1999-2001) is estimated at 20,670 billion cedis, Mr Kwame Peprah, Minister of Finance said today. Presenting the government's budget to Parliament in Accra, he said "total discretionary envelope" is projected at 3,859 billion cedis for 1999, 4,280 billion cedis for 2000 and 4,431 billion cedis for 2001. Mr Peprah said these budgetary allocations are broad-based in that they include funds locally generated by the government and external sources. The new budgetary process closely aligns the prospective activities of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to policy directions that have been spelt out by government. The Minister said a breakdown of allocations to individual MDAs are based on a strategic planning process that assesses an MDA's mission, objectives or goals for the period, activities that would be required and outputs that would be delivered to achieve the stated goals. For the purpose of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), five broad sectors have been developed under which specific MDAs are classified, Mr Peprah said. These are General Administration, Economic Services, Infrastructure, Social Services and Public Safety. The Minister said the share of government's discretionary funding over the medium term is: Social Services (31.06 per cent), Infrastructure (24.01 per cent), General Administration (22.96 per cent), Economic Services (10.09 per cent), Public Safety (10.81 per cent) and Contingency (1.1 per cent). For this year, the breakdown of expenditure is Social Services 30.4 per cent, Infrastructure 21.1 per cent, General Administration 26.89 per cent, Economic Services 10.3 per cent, Public Safety 10.1 per cent and Contingency 1.1 per cent. "The relatively high share given to the social services reflects Government's commitment to health, education and other initiatives aimed at poverty reduction."