Well, they have found the following not so in line with the title of the budget. There is more actually but chew on thee below.
SECTORS THAT CAN DO WITH LESS
1. An administrative sector such as the Ministry of Information of Media Relations has been allocated an amount of GHS 100, 120, 293. This amount against an allocation of GHS 89,949,128 to Ministry of Transport (an infrastructural sector) appears misguided.
2. Ministry of Fish and Aquaculture received an allocation of GHS 128, 617, 836 in 2014 vs. an allocation of GHS 48, 336, 230 in 2013. In addition to the legal and admistrative roles, in 2014, the Ministry will undertake the construction of Fisheries College at Anomabo and the construction of the Turnkey Fish Processing Factory at Elmina. Within the scope of the country?s debt and the constraints on budget, non-essential infrastructural developments may not be smart at this time.
THE QUESTION: Isn’t the reality a lack of adequate fish? How would the College of Fisheries deal with the shortage of fish? They also reference an IMANI study on the Oguaa Lagoon that stated that with an investment of $150m into the redevelopment of the Lagoon including buying modern fishing trawlers for the fishermen to fish beyond the oil rigs instead of using canoes, Ghana can generate $14m annually.
3 Similarly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with an allocation of GHS 153, 953, 629 is high. Besides the facilitation of visits and participation of workshop to integrate Ghana into the international community, the only concrete agenda on the agenda for 2014 is the facilitation of conversion of all passports to biometric by 2015. In 2013, the ministry set up passport offices in 6 regions on a budget of GHS 110, 229, 048 and in 2014 it intends to set up additional offices in the 4 remaining regions.
Having delivered a project of a larger scope and on a smaller budget the year prior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should have received less money this year.
THE QUESTION: Shouldn’t the Passport office be able to generate enough money through the sale of the bio metric passports? Are these passports free? How much has the office generated since we went bio metric?
4. The audit service was allocated GHS 119, 115, 792 in 2014 while it received GHS 51, 552, 918 in 2013. This represents a 57% increase. A review of the activities for 2013 and projections for 2014 appear very similar with no visible extension of role to warrant the 57% increase in allocation.
– While there is no indication in a dramatic change of purpose for funds allocated to the District Assemblies Common Fund, the fund has seen a hefty drop in budget allocation of about 99%, from Gh?1,149,286,950 to Gh?311,833. It is likely that the large budget cut will greatly impact the abilities of District Assemblies to do meaningful work in 2014.
5. The electoral commission was allocated GHS 141,082,137 in 2014. In 2013, the EC received 15% of this amount; GHS 21, 228, 757. In 2013, The Commission will expand and maintain its VSAT Wide Area Network to support continuous registration of voters. Furthermore, youth groups, civil society organisations and schools will be educated on the electoral process and its purpose.
According to Budget statement 2014, these objectives were fulfilled.
In 2014, the Commission will re-demarcate electoral areas and Unit Committee boundaries, expand the Biometric Voters Register to include persons who qualify to be registered, sensitize the public to increase awareness of the district level electoral process and conduct as well as supervise Assembly and Unit Committee Elections in all 216 MMDAs. Furthermore, the Commission will inspect political party offices and audit political party accounts to enforce legal, operational and financial compliance for political organization to enhance good governance.
THE QUESTION: Why re-demarcate electoral areas and Unit Committees almost every two years? Why have MPs representing sparsely populated areas?
The activities earmarked for 2014 are an extension of the activities carried out in 2012 and does not reflect a need for an 85% increase in allocation between 2013 and 2014.
SECTORS THAT CAN DO WITH MORE
Water Works, Sanitation and Housing has received budget cut of about Gh?60million yet it seems prima facie, from the arrears in work they plan to carry over into 2014, as well as additional projects that they plan to undertake, that they need more than they have been allocated for the year.
Other Comments:
There are policy initiatives that overlap between multiple MDAs, for which it is unclear where funds for each initiative are deposited. For example, both the Ghana Prisons Service and the Ministry of Education indicate that they will undertake formal education training for inmates, yet none explicitly mentions cooperation with the other. It is unclear then, which of the MDAs is responsible for financing the project.
As I said, there is more…….
