Abandoning of projects without justification not good governance – Prof Gatsi

Prof. Gatsi suggested two important remedies to dealing with this major political and socioeconomic problem that negatively affect dividends from good governance Firstly, he called for the development of Article 35(7) into an Act of Parliament, part of which will require newly elected governments to, within their first nine months in office, submit to Parliament for approval a comprehensive report and justification on projects, policies and programmes it wishes to discontinue for debate and approval or disapproval. This he said will greatly contribute to fairness, transparency, responsibility, discipline and accountability.
He further suggested that, the new Act shall also require the creation of a publicly accessible National Contract and Projects Management Register with key features of contracts, projects such as amounts, location, execution time, date of commencement and level of execution, all to deepen good governance.
Prof. Gatsi admonished government and political parties about the constitution’s economic management objectives, which is to:
1. maximize the rate of economic development
2. secure maximum welfare Ghanaians
3. secure maximum freedom of Ghanaians
4. secure maximum happiness of all persons in Ghana
5. ensure sound employment for Ghanaians
6. ensure access to reasonable livelihood of all Ghanaians
7. provide assistance to the needy.
Further reminding political parties and government that, macroeconomic indicators such as GDP, inflation and exchange rate are important but are not the standards set out in Article 36:1 as the dividend for good economic governance. He advised citizens, especially the youth, to demand accountability on these good governance matters.