World Bank funded 20 projects in 2016
The World Bank disbursed $1.14 billion to fund 20 development projects in the country last year. The amount represents 65.9 per cent of the $1.73 billion approved by the multilateral development bank to tackle some of the country’s challenges, including education, water and sanitation, energy and health infrastructure.
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This was contained in the Country Portfolio Performance Review (CPPR) report for 2017 launched in Accra yesterday, which also indicated that $472.79 million of the total commitments by the World Bank remained undisbursed as of March 28, this year.
“The statistics show that Ghana has a disbursement rate of 27.2 per cent, a figure that is higher than almost all countries in the African sub-region, but there is still more room for improvement and this requires that efforts are made to remove all the bottlenecks,” the Country Director of the World Bank, Dr Henry Kerali, stated at the launch of the report.
He identified delays in the payment of compensation to landowners at project sites and the bureaucratic approval processes by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) with oversight responsibility for projects as some of the major setbacks to quicker disbursement of committed funds and the successful execution of projects.
CPPR
The CPPR is an annual platform for the management of the World Bank, development agents and other stakeholders to assess the state of projects, identify the challenges and proffer remedies that will enhance their effective implementation.
This year’s CPPR was on the theme: “Disbursement for Results and Impact” and highlighted the need to build stronger financial accountability regimes, remove
procurement barriers and deepen collaboration among stakeholders to ensure that projects were implemented successfully.
Efficiency
In a speech read on his behalf by a Deputy Minister designate for Finance, Mr Charles Adu Boahen, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, lauded the World Bank for the key role it had played in implementing development projects in the country.
He underscored the need for all agencies and individuals in charge of managing donor-funded projects to adhere strictly to the judicious use of resources and the
prudent management of funds, in accordance with the Public Financial Management Law and donor guidelines. “I urge all stakeholders to rise above the
age-old safeguard issues, poor contract management, delayed procurement processes and weak supervision which, among other things, account for the slow execution of development projects.
“I would like to emphasise that prudent management of project funds is just as important as the efficient delivery of services to the public, so we should all eschew social injustice and corruption and cultivate the habit of transparency and best practices in project implementation,” he said.
Mr Ofori-Atta gave an assurance that the Ministry of Finance would foster closer collaboration with implementation agencies to ensure the prompt release of valuation reports by the Land Valuation Division and the timely release of funds for compensation payments.
Challenges
A Senior Operation Manager at the World Bank, Dr Beatrix Allah-Mensah, observed that seven of the 20 projects that were implemented could be described as “problem and potential problem” projects because they had dire implementation challenges.
The projects included the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP), the Ghana Maternal, Child Health and Nutrition Project, the Land Administration Project II and the Ghana Transport Project.
