Akufo-Addo's proposal on NDPC lauded

Policy Analyst at Ashesi University, Lloyd Amoah, has lauded the proposal by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, to put his vice president in charge of the National Development Planning Commission, in the event of assuming the nation’s presidency on January 7, 2013.

President John Dramani Mahama sought to make the nation believe that there was “confusion in the mind of” Nana Akufo-Addo when the NPP leader made the proposal at Tuesday’s presidential debate organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs at Tamale.

In the thinking of President Mahama, Nana Akufo-Addo was seeking to introduce “political interference” in the management of the NDPC with the proposal to make his vice president the head of the commission.

The NDPC is currently headed by Paul Victor Obeng, a high profile politician of the ruling National Democratic Congress government, headed by President Mahama.

Perhaps, in an effort to draw his accuser’s attention to the fact that he was himself more than confused, Nana Akufo-Addo reminded President Mahama about the position of the NDC on the NDPC, as contained in its 2008 manifesto.

The party states in page 10 of the manifesto: “The NDC Government, as another imperative in the area of economic governance, will locate the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in the Office of the President to be chaired by the President in order to signal that the country will ‘think first and then act its way out of its problems’”.

Speaking on Joy FM yesterday, Dr Amoah supported Nana Akufo-Addo’s idea of making his Vice president Chairman of the Commission if the NPP is elected to govern in the upcoming December polls.

“The NDPC needs to be far more resourced and provided with greater presidential clout; and so for me, Nana Addo’s position that he will put the Vice president as the key government personality on that Commission to ensure that it has presidential bite, is timely and important,” he explained.

Dr Amoah added: “I think that other institutions such as the NDPC which are mandated by our supreme law to perform that role, ought to be backed up with, as I said, resources, with brain power; young people from the universities, policy analysts, intellectuals who have proved their worth in their fields ought to be sent in there so that the NDPC provides us with the intellectual fire power on a consistent level.”

He noted that the Commission in its current state was not capable of engineering any significant policy proposals to fast-track the country's development agenda.

Meanwhile, IMANI-Ghana, has suggested that the NDPC be stripped of its planning responsibilities and reduced to an advisory body.

According to the Founding President of IMANI, Franklyn Cudjoe, the emphasis on the NDPC as a vehicle for a binding national development plan is out of place.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites