EU Expresses Confidence in Ghana

The European Union (EU) has expressed the confidence that Ghana will take up her responsibilities, and put in place appropriate policies to cope with her budget deficits, and also ensure that the deficits do not go beyond a certain threshold.

Mr. Koos Richelle, a co-chair of the Working Party on aid effectiveness, currently meeting in Ghana, disclosed this on Friday September 24, in response to a question on his views on reports that the government was running the economy on deficits, at a joint press conference in Accra, prior to his departure.

He said the EU had no indication that Ghana was acting in an irresponsible way, stressing that in the face of world economic downturn, and the difficult times faced by all countries, including those in Europe and Africa, the government of Ghana cannot be blamed for running on a deficit. “Being a global issue, it is necessary to see how government is reacting to the shocks.”

Mr. Richelle, who is also the Director-General of the European Commission’s Aid Cooperation Office (Europe Aid), was in Ghana for a three-day working visit, in his capacity as the co-chair of the OECD-DAC’s Working Party on Aid Effectiveness, from Wednesday September 22 – 24, 2010.

The purpose of his visit was to discuss progress made on the implementation of the principles adopted at the high level forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Paris in 2005, and Accra in 2008, and challenges on the way ahead to the 4th High Level Forum scheduled to take place in Busan, South Korea, toward the end of November, 2011.

Explaining the work of the Working Party, Mr. Richelle said Ghana’s efforts to improve the country system, through the engagement of the Global Partnership on Country systems, has been supported by the Working Party.

He said the focus on strengthening and using country systems was to ensure that everything was in the budget, and that it was made public, so that it can be controlled by parliament, civil society, and the media among others, to ensure that these groups can control how money is used in the country.

“We want to check if Ghana will be ready to be showcased in Busan, in terms of progress made to improve budget, with regards to information communication technology, computer assisted technologies, auditing and procurement systems,” he noted.

By: Stephen Odoi-Larbi