Policy think-tank, IMANI Ghana says its assessment of the government’s achievements in the last two and a half years is to create awareness among the populace and aid them in realizing how far the government had gone in fulfilling its campaign promises.
The think tank in an assessment report scored the Mahama-led government 47 percent for its overall performance since assuming power in 2012.
[contextly_sidebar id=”VKo3pFecK486pH4yIKj5IxWEzGvn4iXt”]Government has rejected the verdict, describing it as a misrepresentation of its achievement.
In an interview with Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show, Assistant Research Director at IMANI Ghana, Maud Martei said that the study was not meant to berate the government but create awareness about its performance and measure its progress.
“This is an output assessment where we were measuring first key deliverables,” she said, “now the idea of the dialogue that we were hoping that this will stir was if these activities that the government promised have been fulfilled and if these activities are fulfilled to the max- 100%will that give us the amount to the impact we expect?”
She further expressed that the assessment was also to make electorates critical on which policy would serve the nation’s interest.
“If no or yes, then it means that as an electorate you need to be critical about the promises that the government makes to us because even if government has fulfilled its promises, we may not receive the impact we need,” she stated, “At 47%, this is what the state of the economy is and we need to think critically.”
Maud Martei added that the assessment is an outcome/output assessment.
“The study we gave was an outcome/output based assessment and not necessarily an impact assessment,” she said, “For impact assessment we will probably do it after the four year term.”
Some Ghanaians also reacted to IMANI Ghana’s assessment report on the government on the Citi Breakfast Show.
“If you look at the performance of this government, nobody will tell you that they deserved the result given them by IMANI,” one caller lamented, “They promised us quality education but we are not seeing that policy in our education today. They also said they were going to give us a one-time payment for the National Health Insurance Scheme but nobody is talking about it again and I keep asking questions.”
Another caller on the show thought IMANI had done the government a favour with the 47% assessment.
“These are some of the things that we want so that we will hold our government responsible for anything they are coming to do in this country,” he complained, “Look at our roads and health sector – even doctors are going on strike, legal departments are going on strike and everything is in a mess. I think that the IMANI people have given them too much and I think they (government) deserve 20%.”
A third caller praised IMANI for ensuring that government was being held accountable to the people of Ghana; however, he also thought the 47% was too generous on the part of IMANI.
“I think that it is a wonderful job that IMANI did. I pray that we can find more of such institutions to do this particular work for Ghanaians. In addition, you know when it comes to percentages majority of Ghanaians, me included will not be this generous to them because 47% is very generous. As at now nothing seems to work in this country,” he stated, “Lights don’t work, water doesn’t work, bad roads and institutions. What works in Ghana? I want someone to tell me one particular thing that works in Ghana for which we should be continuously paying our taxes.”
On the other hand, one other caller referred to and supported Felix Kwakye-Ofosu’s stance that IMANI’s verdict is not a true representation of the achievements of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government and he believed that the percentage should be increased.
“Just as Felix Ofosu Kwakye said, there are certain things that are not really looked at,” he stated, “If they should note it, I believe that the percentage should go up but Ghanaians are always criticizing government that nothing is being done, so we do not really know the basis on which IMANI is analyzing this thing.”
Earlier, IMANI had described the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) performance as “satisfactory” in its assessment report, but it was quick to add that there is more room for improvement.
This was after IMANI Ghana assessed the party based on its promises in the 2012 manifesto.
The report had also evaluated the rate of execution of programs and projects stated in the manifesto and identified the gaps that should be bridged over the next year and a half before the 2016 election.
By: Selassie A. Amissah Mensah /citifmonline.com/