....Reduce poverty and show that zero tolerance is not mere political rhetoric

One and a half years after assuming the reigns of goverment, the Kufuor Administration says the economy has recorded some modest gains. While many economists agree with this assessment, the jury is out on when and to what extent the gains would reflect on the lives of ordinary Ghanaians.

A nation-wide exercise on the effect of the 2002 Budget conducted by the Centre for Budget Advocacy of the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) and Save the Children Fund carries mixed reactions and valuable suggestions on the performance of the economy and the way forward for the country.

?The age-old canker in Ghana?s history, bribery and corruption, came up several times for complaint and the government was called upon to act rather than the rhetoric of zero tolerance for corruption,? the study found.

According to the researchers many participants agreed that the 2002 budget was pragmatic and that given the condition of the economy at the time the government came into office, the five percent GDP target was very realistic. Others were however concerned that the rate was not based on long-term policies such as price changes on the international market. The complaints and suggestions were the outcome of public forums held throughout the country on the 2002 Budget and published as an open letter to President John Agyekum Kufuor in the centre pages of this paper.

The Centre for Budget Advocacy and Save the Children say the forums were among other aims organized to whip up public interest on economic and other policy issues raised in the budget at the national and district levels and to afford those at the regional levels an opportunity to discuss pertinent issues raised in the 2002 budget.

According to the study, many participants questioned the rationale behind the government?s abandoning the Ghana Vision 2020 document without giving an alternative plan. Most importantly, the participants agreed on the pressing need for the government to provide the logistics for the country to generate additional revenue from exports to supplement internally-generated revenue. This is in recognition of the fact that Ghana is a poor country, which needs to balance her imports with exports. The participants wondered why the country continues to depend on indirect consumption based taxes without tapping the potential direct taxes and reviewing the concessions for the corporate taxpayers.

?This is a worrisome area because the emphasis on domestic revenue is meaningless unless we can improve our tax system to cover all sectors of the economy?, said the participants, explaining that even though taxes are progressive, the low compliance and lack of enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service favours the wealthy and the powerful and hampers revenue mobilization.

The on-going divesture of state owned enterprises were of particular interest to many respondents. Worryingly, many of the contributors said the divestiture programme is at variance with the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy document, which aims to reduce the incidence of poverty in some of the worst affected communities in both rural and urban areas. They stressed that since the rationale for privatization is profitability, some enterprises divested and those slated for divestiture could be turned over when placed in the hands of better management. ?What happens when all state owned enterprises have been sold out??, some participants wondered.

Another area of concern was transparency and accountability of public office holders. There was a general consensus that for Ghana to record increased productivity public officers must show some level of transparency. It was also generally agreed that the development of the economy should not rest on the shoulder of the government alone. Rather it requires collaboration between the government and the individual effort of the whole citizenry. Recognizing the fact that agriculture remains the backbone of the national economy, the report said the participants urged the government to pay special attention to the needs of farmers, if the country is get out of the woods.

The participants accordingly applauded the government for investing in the treatment of cocoa and asked government to extend same support to other crops, which have the potential for generating foreign revenue. The report said some speakers were critical of the timing of the increase in the producer price of cocoa, coming after the main season when most farmers had sold their crops. According to the report the low level income featured prominently during the contributions.

Many people were not happy that in the wake low salaries and misery government granted $20,000 car loans to parliamentarians. ?The achievement of the targets set in the budget require hard work, transparency, good economic management and accountability from all as well as putting a good tax collection system in place.?

The Open Letter ended with a word of caution. ?The authorities must learn from the past mistakes in the disbursement of the poverty alleviation fund which went to party functionaries without regard to what they were going to use the money for. The problem with such assistance is the problem of loan recovery and the failure to cater for the really vulnerable in society.?