Koforidua, Oct. 16, GNA - The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor has assured development partners of government's commitment to judicious use of resources under the Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDSB) for the development and well-being of the people. He said as a step to that commitment, the public finance management had been improved and the Controller and Accountant-General's Department as well as the Ghana Audit Service were all strengthened to ensure efficient and timely budget reporting.

Dr Duffuor, who was speaking at the opening of a three-day retreat for officials of the MDBS, National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and the Ministry in Koforidua on Friday, said that the tax agencies were also being supported to mobilize more local resources for development. He noted that since the inception of the MDBS, development partners had contributed cumulatively close to two-billion dollars with an annual contribution hovering around 300 Million dollars, which served as a major financing anchor for Ghana's infrastructure development. Dr Duffuor said there were challenges within the MDBS mechanism such as the high cost of mobilizing development assistance, relaxation of the assessment mechanism, better ownership of the mechanism by government and the need to improve visibility of MDBS donors.

He urged the participants to provide a platform for frank and open discussions to enable them to find lasting solutions to challenges for effective development for the people of Ghana. The MDBS, which began in Ghana in 2003, has 11 development partners including the African Development Bank, the European Commission, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, United Kingdom (UK), Canada, Denmark and the World Bank.

The sustenance of the MDBS is dependant on the maintenance of a set of underlying principles including continuing peace and respect for human rights, integrity in public life and accountability of the government to the citizenry by a beneficiary country. Professor Newman Kusi, the acting Chief Director of the Ministry, said macro-economic indications showed that government would be able to meet the growth target of the 5.9 percent for the 2009/10 budget. He said some of the indications were the down turn in inflation from 20 percent to 18 percent in this last quarter, upward adjustment in cocoa prices, appreciation of the Ghana cedi against major currencies and improvement in government's current accounts.

According to Prof Kusi, Ghana's economy did not suffer much from the economic crunch due to the MDBS and urged the development partners to consider relaxing their mechanism which included procurement, disbursement and accountability. Mr Martin Saladin, Co-Chair of the MDBS, said it had confidence in the Ghanaian economy as it was operating within the framework and principles of the donor development partners. He said challengers including the lack of harmonization among development partners would be discussed at the retreat. 16 Oct. 09