Donors must work with government on oil industry

Accra, May 10, GNA - Mr. Ben Eghan, Cabinet Secretary, on Monday asked the country's donors to work together with government to ensure that the country's oil resources are judiciously used for the benefit of the people.

He said it was necessary for the country and her development partners to get it right and build the capacity of the oil industry to ensure that the discovery did not become a curse. "This is therefore not the time for any development partner to develop cold feet. Our partnership must go beyond a donor and a receiver kind of arrangement especially with the advent of oil discovery," Mr Eghan said.

He was speaking at the annual joint review of the Multi Donor Budget Support Programme through which partners deliver aid to government.

The MDBS progra mme was initiated in 2002, during the Consultative Group meetings to provide more harmonised assistance to Ghana in her quest to achieve the development agenda through policy reform. It also aims at increasing the predictability of donor flows through agreed targets, reduce tied aids and improve development partners' co-ordination. Currently, 11 development partners have signed on to the programmes. Mr Eghan said the essence and import of the review went beyond assessment of MDBS targets and triggers to examining whether government's priorities across board had been achieved and resources were wisely allocated and utilized and to also learn from the challenges to improve.

Mr Eghan said the fo rmulation of a Development Partner Performance Assessment Framework (DP-PAF) to assess performance of development partners, introduce some flexibility into the MDBS policy matrix and measures and to actively include Civil Society Organizations in the process.

He said the initiative was to pursue a more active communications policy to disseminate and make more widely available information on MDBS to ensure its transparency, an increase in accountability and portray the positive nature of cooperation. "These policy actions we have agreed to in the MDBS PAF are crucial to Government in the successful implementation of its development agenda. However, one major difficulty that government has faced with the MDBS PAF is the way it is assessed" he said. He asked donors to show more flexibility in their assessment specifically in cases where government had made significant progress in achieving the set targets and triggers.

Mr Eghan said in framing the next MDBS policy matrix, sectors had presented some indicators for 2010 drawn from the draft Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF), which also reflected the policy direction of the 2010 budget, as well as the sector work plan. Mr Nicolas Lang, Swiss Ambassador to Ghana, said the joint Annual Review signified the end to a year-long process of MDBS related activities that involved significant efforts from government and Development Partners at all levels.

He said this year's MDBS joint annual review continued to be a cornerstone in the development assistance relations between the development partners, and that last year a record amount of 525 million US Dollars was disbursed through the MDBS mechanism. About 451 million dollars is expected to be delivered through the programme this year.

Mr Lang said MDBS partners demonstrated exceptional collaboration and commitment in re-opening and improving the PAF to pave way for its use as the primary reference for the 2010 annual review. He said the availability of the medium term development plan was important for continuous support under the MDBS since it was expected to lay out the macro-economic framework and medium term priorities of Ghana's development agenda which formed the basis for development partner support.

Mr Laing said DPs remain committed to aiding the government in its transition to an oil producing country and to a middle income status through help to mitigate development challenges.