Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr. Mark AssibeyYeboah explains that yielding to such requests will rather complicate the current issue as there already are institutions which have oversight responsibilities on all government’s borrowing plans.

“It will be just another bureaucracy; the institutions are manned by people it is politicians who are going to appoint people to manage these institutions. There are existing institutions already so if you equip them and insulate them from political interference, they should be able to work. This decision is another needless bureaucracy which is not going to lead to anything new,” he argued in an interview.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has advocated for the establishment of a Debt Audit Commission as a means to avoid unwarranted borrowing.

The economic think tank maintains that the move will also reduce the interest payments on the country’s debt currently at an estimated 139 billion cedis.

“So when that audit is done, we will be able to know or understand how much that we borrowed, what was used for and how much is left…in our case because our lenders think we have enough oil resources for instance, they are readily available to provide the money during the government’s Eurobond issues,” Executive Director of IFS, Professor Newman Kusi told Citi Business News.

But Dr. Assibey Yeboah insists that the current institutions would be strengthened to help protect the public purse.

“There is the Auditor General’s office which recently saved the country 5.4 billion cedis through the auditing of claims submitted by cabinet. There are also the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, the Bank of Ghana as well as the Debt Management Division of the Finance Ministry,” he added.

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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post Debt Audit Commission will only deepen bureaucracies – Govt appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

He decried the gap in the quality of education at International Schools as compared to public senior high schools, and warned that failure to reverse the trend will spell doom for the country’s human resource.

Speaking on “re-engineering education in Ghana, removing the growing dualism” at the 4th lecture of Achimota Speaks, Prof. Aryeetey called for a Private Public Partnership in the financing High Schools in order to bridge the gap.

[contextly_sidebar id=”DG5kwSHHUuQcQvyyTBNDkoEjWnooqpqI”]“What I want us to do is to bridge the gap and it is possible. I am proposing Private Public Partnership (PPP). If you are bringing an investor to spend millions of dollars it cannot be for free. I have not said I am against free SHS. If you make it free and you don’t make these investments you are wasting your time. That one I can say confidently.”

Prof. Aryeetey is not the first to caution government on the implementation of the Free SHS policy, without the corresponding measures to ensure its sustainability.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies, equally raised similar concerns, saying the policy could have negative implications on education if government fails to identify pragmatic funding sources to sustain it.

The IFS said the fundamentals for achieving the objectives require robust and sustainable funds which have to be considered critically.

In a post analysis of the 2017 budget statement, the Executive Director for the IFS, Professor Newman Kusi, further cautioned that the development may lead to undesirable circumstances that had characterized previous policies.

“If the enrollment numbers increase or double, are we assuming that there are available classrooms to accommodate the children so that we can get quality education. Are we saying that there are enough teaching and learning materials as well as teachers so that we do not continue with the schools under trees phenomenon?” he quizzed.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

The post Free SHS without investment waste of time – Prof. Aryeetey appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.