The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), are jointly supporting the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament in its oversight responsibilities over government expenditure.

A statement from the Public Affairs Section of the United States Embassy said under a concluded agreement, USAID and GIZ would make available funds and technical assistance to PAC for the implementation of capacity building activities, advisory services, public hearings, and peer learning with public accounts committees of other West African countries.

Mr Andrew Karas, Acting Director, USAID/Ghana Mission, Mr Siegfried Leffler GIZ Country Director, and Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, Chairman of the PAC celebrated the new partnership on behalf of their institutions.

The agreement formally marks the beginning of a collaborative relationship among the PAC, USAID and GIZ to deepen Ghana’s democracy, enhance public accountability, and institutionalised a national culture for accountable and responsive development.

USAID’s governance development focus acknowledges Ghana’s vibrant democracy and thus has collaborated with country's Parliament since 1997.

In addition to providing support for strengthened democratic governance, USAID works in support of efforts to promote sustainable and broadly shared economic growth, equitable improvements in health status and improved reading performance in primary school.

In Ghana, GIZ has been supporting improvements to public finance system since 2003 for a more transparent, rules-based and effective tax and budget systems as well as enhanced transparency regarding revenues from the extractive industries.

Besides the support to the public finance system, GIZ is supporting areas such as agriculture, decentralisation, sustainable economic development, health, renewable energy and peace and security.