Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) who do not have an approved development plan cannot have a budget, the Director General (DG) of National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Kodjo E. Mensah-Abrampa has warned.
According to him, the failure of the MDAs to present their development plans not only affected the work of the Commission, but the development of the country.
Dr Mensah-Abrampa said some 12 MDAs out of the 46 MDAs, failed to submit their 2023 development plan, eight months into the year.
The DG of the NDPC disclosed this at a two-day high level stakeholders workshop on statistical data collection and management for effective coordination and joint implementation in Accra on Thursday.
The workshop, organised by the Commission in partnership with the Ghana Statistical Service, with support from the German Development Agency (GIZ) Ghana and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF)-Ghana brought together Directors and officials of MDAs.
It aimed to foster effective coordination and joint implementation of projects and programmes leveraging the growing imperative to jointly produce, share and use quality statistical data for accelerated national development among MDAs.
The NDPC is mandated to coordinate district development plans and programmes submitted through the regional coordinating councils; integrate the economic, spatial and sectoral plans of ministries and sector agencies and ensure that all these plans are compatible with national development objectives.
The MDAs on the other hand are required by the Civil Service Law 1993, PNDCL 327, Act 480 and LI 2232, to undertake development planning functions in consultation with the Commission, prepare and submit for approval by the Commission a development plan based on and compatible with national development priorities and sectoral development guidelines issued by NDPC.
However, the DG said some MDAs failed to perform these functions and were obtaining resources and making expenditures without informing the Commission, Parliament and Office of the President.
“So what we’re saying is that, if you do not have an approved plan which NDPC had been authourised by our own constitution and fully supported by the president and implement, you cannot have a budget, and we’ll insist because if you don’t plan you can’t spend,” he added.
He stated that the 12 MDAs which failed to submit their plans to guide effective implementation had been sent to the Chief of Staff for action.
He expressed NDPC’s readiness to support the MDAs to plan and coordinate effectively in the collection and management of statistical data to ensure harmony and waste of resources.
The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, observed that managing data and effective coordination was a challenge on the part of MDAs in their development plans and policies.
He underscored the need for increase in investment in data for the purpose of integration and interoperability to help MDAs facilitate effective implementations as they continued to digitise their data system.
Prof. Annim also called on the MDAs to have a robust systems for effective management of data so that the country would not miss out harnessing global data.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
