Account for oil revenues – TUC tells gov’t

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called on government to properly account for funds that have been spent in the past from the country’s oil sector.

According to TUC, government’s failure to properly account for monies accrued from the oil sector previously could promote the squandering of the funds.

Kofi Asamoah, Secretary General of TUC, in a statement, welcomed the adoption of four priority sectors which would attract funds from the oil and gas sector in the next three years in line with the Petroleum Revenue Management Law (Act 815).

“We expected Government to tell Ghanaians the status of the road projects on which huge sums of petroleum revenues were applied,” Asamoah said.

He said the performance of agriculture over the last three years does not reflect the huge resources that have been invested in agricultural modernization from the oil revenue.

Mr Asamoah said, “Without proper accounting for past revenues, we are likely to squander another huge sum with these new priority areas.”

Government has once again confirmed to Ghanaians that when it comes to employment it is a matter for manifestos and not a serious macroeconomic issue for its consideration, he said.

“Over the years, in our engagements on Budget and Economic Policy formulation, we have called for a change in the way economic policy has been conducted in Ghana over the last 30 years,” he said.

“Specifically, we have called for a break from the neo-liberal overemphasis on price stability. We have suggested an alternative approach of Employment Targeting to economic policy.”

On public sector wages, the TUC welcomed the proposals in the 2014 Budget to enhance the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP).

Asamoah said TUC and its affiliates in the public sector were prepared to support government and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) in this direction.

“We are however concerned with the continued delay in the review of allowances. Also, contrary to what happened this year, we call on government and FWSC and the other social partners to ensure that negotiation on public sector base pay and the national minimum wage are concluded on time,” he said.

Mr Asamoah said in the last five years, annual Budgets and Economic Policies have covered proposals for the completion of exiting and new affordable housing project.

However, he said government’s commitment to affordable housing appears to be a rhetoric as nothing concrete appears to have been done to address the housing deficits in Ghana.

“Given the dire need for affordable housing we call on government to implement the proposals on affordable housing contained in the 2014 Budget Statement and Economic Policy,” Asamoah said.

He said the TUC was concerned with implementation levels of annual budgets and economic policy statements, stating that “in spite of all the challenges we have had with budgets and the policy underpinnings in the last three decades, we firmly believe that budget proposals have been most hampered by poor implementation.”

Mr Asamoah said the execution rate had been low and large-scale inefficiencies often undermine performance.

He urged government to demonstrate commitment to the implementation of the budget by timely releasing resources to the appropriate agencies.