Ms Clara Osei-Boateng, Director of Policy, Advocacy Programme for Send Ghana, making a presentation

2018 Budget failed to address key issues — SEND Ghana

Dominic Moses Awiah Nov - 24 - 2017 , 06:21

Send Ghana has asked the government to provide more information on the proposed voluntary fund to finance the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.

It also stressed the need for the government to indicate clear timelines to operationalise the Office of the Special Prosecutor and how funds would be allocated to that office.

According to the institution, those issues were not properly explained and captured in the 2018 budget statement presented by the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta earlier this month.

Addressing the media at a forum in Accra on SEND Ghana’s analysis of the 2018 National Budget Statement, the Director of Policy and Advocacy Programmes for the organisation, Ms Clara Osei-Boateng, said although the budget was ambitious, it failed to address certain key issues in the economy.

She mentioned the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the funding of Free SHS, Special Prosecutor’s Office under the Health, Education and Anti-corruption as areas that were not properly captured in the budget.

NHIS issues

Explaining what SEND Ghana perceived as challenges with the budget for the health sector, Ms Osei-Boateng said the Finance Minister did not outline any new initiatives to deal with the funding gap and other related challenges facing the NHIS.

“Challenges with health financing have persisted for eight years, according to the Minister of Finance. We were, therefore, expecting to hear some of the measures being put in place to address them but nothing was said about it,” she said.

Education

Concerning how the government intended to sustain the Free SHS programme, she said the government’s proposal to set up a voluntary fund to finance it lacked clarity in terms of how much was being targeted and how that target would be met.

“Government must consider increasing allocation to capital expenditure in the 2018 supplementary budget. This is necessary to address the infrastructural deficit at the SHS level, especially as has been exposed by the implementation of the free SHS,” Ms Osei-Boateng said.

She also stressed the need for the government to ensure that funds allocated were disbursed on time to strengthen the management systems of schools.

Anti-corruption

Ms Osei-Boateng said the reduction of budget allocated for anti-corruption agencies and institutions, particularly the Commission for Human Rights and Administration Justice (CHRAJ), was inadequate.

She also emphasised the need for the government to indicate clear timelines to operationalise the Office of the Special Prosecutor and added that no budget allocation was mentioned for that office.