IEA proposes national development plan for successive governments

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank, has proposed a long-term national development plan for successive governments to monitor and evaluate implementation of policies.

The Institute said the plan should cover a 10 year period out of which medium term plans should be developed and implemented.

This was announced at a press conference on Monday to review the 2011 Budget Statement by the Government.

Dr Kwadwo Tutu, Senior Fellow at IEA said the already established National Development Planning Commission must be a professional entity with the position of the Chairman being competitive.

He said all political parties should be represented at the Commission. Districts, regional and metropolitans, he added should also be involved in the development of the plan.

On education, Dr Tutu said, the idea of mobile libraries should not be restricted to distance learning students at the tertiary level alone but also to the primary and the Junior High Schools (JSS) especially in the rural areas.

He said the enrolment target in the primary level was commendable but noted that quality education at the primary and JSS levels in the public schools was very important.

“This is appalling and the reliance on school governing committees will not work if education officers, inspectors and district assemblies are not made accountable by the Ministry of Education,” he added.

Dr Tutu said instead of this, school authorities should be tasked to produce better results at the end of every academic year, which would be followed by intensive supervision.

In the National Health Insurance programme, he urged Government to expand coverage to all mental patients as well as equip and expand the mental hospitals.

He said the one-time premium payment promised by the Government was not practicable, saying “if government wants to cover some percentage of vulnerable people then premium should be paid yearly based on the cost and changing situations.”

Dr John Kwebena Kwakye, a Senior Economist at IEA said the oil find should modernize agriculture through the value chain approach and not to dwindle like what happened in Ghana’s neighboring countries.

He urged government to effectively and efficiently use the loans it has and would acquire for the intended purposes because the public debt was increasing.

Source: GNA