Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, GACC has been assessing key commitments and policy propositions of the NPP Government on Fiscal Transparency and Accountability measures and says after 18 months in office, the NPP government has NOT delivered on some of its promises, some are however partly delivered with others executed as promised.
Anti-Corruption Activist and Former Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, GII, Vitus Azim who made the presentation on the assessment in Accra said ”most the commitments were made without time lines which makes it difficult to seek accountability of the duty bearers”.
The report pointed out that the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 25 percent to 20percent has been put on hold, while enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Law, expected to pave way for the establishment of the Fiscal Council and Financial Stability Council is yet to be brought before Parliament.
Also, the Election of MMDCE’s has been placed on hold and some have also criticized progress so far made by the NPP government in the fight against corruption.
However, the government received credit on a prominent achievement which is the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor. Mr Azim said the NPP Government has two and a half years to end its first term and it is critical that Civil Society keeps track of the policies and promises to make sure that obligations made to citizens at the time of campaigning are fulfilled.
Executive Secretary of the GACC, Beauty Narteh sent a word out to government to accept the criticisms in good faith and correct anomalies as election 2020 draw neigh. She said no one has the intention to ” attack or malign, the government ”, but the assessment is meant to help ”improve the conditions of citizens”.
Contributing to the discussions, Communications Professor, Kwame Kakari said it is important to interrogate how much government spends on the political class especially Article 71 holders.
In Professor Kakari’s view, ”the profligate lifestyles and expenditures of people in high political office could be the reason why services to the poor are unattended to”.
Story by: Rebecca Ekpe
