Policy think tank IMANI Ghana is set to advocate for all political parties to produce a complete pro-forma budget for their respective manifestos ahead of the 2016 elections.
The pro-forma budget must demonstrate the opportunity cost of each initiative in their respective manifestos by showing the source of budgetary receipt alongside the inventory of resources.
Presenting a progress report on the performance of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) government at a forum in Accra on Wednesday, the president of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe argued that a manifesto without a pro-forma budget “cannot suffice as a proper statement of intent.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”WmYgJW0GZ56bymAeNwNe6XmQEHuy0lbH”]He said it is not sufficient for political parties to cost the individual initiatives they are proposing although that rarely happens.
According to him, the IMANI manifesto assessment is an efficient tool that will hold the government accountable in a mature and consolatory manner.
This, Mr Cudjoe said is the one of the effective measures Ghanaians can use to help political parties to make important choices for the benefit of every citizen.
The progress report he stressed was not the final report of the performance of the NDC government since the party has 18 more months to serve in government.
The report was compiled after cataloguing 542 promises under five themes of governance, infrastructure, education, social sector and the economy just as we saw in the NDC manifesto and it was limited to the deliverables as stated in the 2012 manifesto.
Explaining the rationale behind the assessment of the NDC manifesto, the IMANI boss said his outfit “strongly believes that this exercise will not only embolden the ruling NDC government to prioritize and narrow the identified gaps, but will also guide our political parties in ensuring that their manifestos for the 2016 elections and beyond will be backed by proper business plans.”
According to him, IMANI Ghana in 2012 conducted an assessment of all the major political party manifestos to verify the extent of alignment with needed social policy interventions.
“Back then, we realised that the accuracy in the transcription of pledges into easily retrieval formats was a challenge since the pledges tend to be scattered across several media appearances and are often contextualizing intense debate.”
He continued saying, “it was usually difficult to appreciate the plans of political parties by just following their media and physical appearances” which is why his outfit is determined to ensure all parties produce a complete pro-forma budget for their respective manifestos.
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By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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