The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has urged the involvement of the leadership of community members in developmental projects the government intends to execute in the respective communities.
That, it said was to tailor to the specific needs of the beneficiary communities to avoid revenue losses, and project redundancy.
These came to light at a media engagement organised by PIAC on its 2021 annual report over the weekend in Ho.
The report which assessed the management and use of Ghana’s petroleum revenues indicated that out of the total petroleum revenue of $7.33 billion (2011-2021), $2.90 billion representing 40 percent was allocated to Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA).
Highlights from the report stated that the government was enjoined to prioritise not more than four areas every three years, when submitting a programme of activities to use petroleum revenues.
The $2.90 billion which was allocated to ABFA over the priority areas was aimed to maximise the rate of economic development, promote equality of economic opportunities, and ensure a balanced development of administrational regions in Ghana.
However, the report revealed that as much as infrastructural developments was one of the areas for ABFA investments, it had not been able to achieve “even and balanced development” despite scattering projects across all regions and in most districts.
A representative of Muslim groups on PIAC, Alhaj Ahmad Suleman Anderson, explaining the report stated that there had been abandoned and uncompleted projects, due to the delays in payments of certificates raised by contractors.
“Most construction works have to be redesigned which brings about cost overruns against the revenues generated from the petroleum sector,” he said.
Mr Anderson said the government should liaise with the municipality leaders, members and district assemblies in order to access their needs, while involving them during the awarding of contracts.
“The local government structure should be allowed to work to involve members and be able to regulate supervision on projects to go with the intended plan to order well for value for money,” he stated.
Referencing a delegation he led to inspect some projects earlier this year, he said the committee was dissatisfied with some of the unfinished projects left in communities, while others were not sited at their appropriate places.
“A report from the Ministry of Finance stated that construction of a market and a bore hole at Otukwadjo in Nsawam Adoagyiri Constituency was done and handed over but the committee was disappointed to not see anything on the site,” he said.
Adding that “when we got to the town we couldn’t find any bore-hole or market, the opinion leaders of the town took us around but what we saw was an old bore-hole which was even constructed by the efforts of the members in the community,” he explained.
He added that petroleum revenues assigned to construction projects across some communities had not been used for its purposes and need to be looked at.
FROM ANITA ANKRAH, Ho
