|
MCA budget cost projections must be
adhered to - President Kufuor
Accra, March 9, Ghanadot/GNA – President John Agyekum Kufuor
on Sunday urged Consultants working on Ghana’s Compact of
the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to make sure that
costs were managed within agreed budgets.
He demanded that every aspect of the programme should not
only be tackled with a sense of professionalism but must be
completed on schedule.
“This Programme must be exemplary. I do not expect anything
less than excellence from the Consultants”, he said when he
joined the Board and Management of the Millennium
Development Authority (MiDA) and Consultants at their
retreat at the Fiesta Royale Hotel in Accra.
Also attending was the US Deputy Vice President of the
Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) responsible for
Compact Implementation in Africa, Mr. Jonathan Bloom.
Ghana’s 547 million-dollar Compact is meant to modernize and
transform the face of the country’s agriculture and
President Kufuor was with the Board to acquaint himself with
plans and timelines in place for efficient implementation of
the programme.
He re-affirmed the Government’s total commitment to the
successful delivery of the benefits, which the programme
promises for the economy and the people especially,
smallholder farmers in selected districts.
He noted that, exactly a year after the Compact was signed,
the building blocks were now in place to support the start
of the implementation phase.
Significant activities relating to commercial development
and disbursement of funds to farmers and related small and
medium scale agro-enterprises, construction of trunk and
feeder roads in the Afram Basin and other Intervention Zones
in the North and in the South had been programmed for the
year.
Added to these would be the improvement of Ferry Services in
the crossing from Adawso to Ekye Amanfrom, rehabilitation of
schools and other social infrastructure in some farming
communities as well as the automation of Rural Banks to
bring rural areas into the financial economy.
President Kufuor said, he particularly looked forward to
tremendous improvement in Accra’s transportation
infrastructure with the commencement of construction work on
the George W. Bush Motorway later in the year.
Mr Edward Boateng, Chairman of the MiDA Board, announced
that all major procurements had been completed.
The retreat, he said, was to provide a platform to review
the progress achieved over the past six months and what they
would achive in the coming six months and the challenges.
GNA
|
