Budget Reforms in Ghana

Budget Reforms in Ghana   Introduction/ Background: According to the research I have done I have found that Ghanas government needs help improving their budget. This projects development objective, for the Public Financial Management Reform, is to improve the budget management, financial control and reporting of Ghanas government. In these projects the organizations contribute to enhancing fiscal discipline, service delivery efficiency, through strengthened systems and procedures. The components for this project show financial management and budget strategies to help Ghana. In reviews dated back to the 1990s of the Public Financial Management in Ghana have shown that they have several weaknesses in this process. They have a weak budget formulation and a weak budget preparation. They also have a weak expenditure monitoring and controlling the budget. Ghanas lacking a good accounting and good monitoring system. These problems would catch the eye of any public administration major. This reform is being done to better the government of Ghana. If this was to go successfully it would influence the public greatly. In the field of public administration, you would want to help the public anywhere become better than it already is. With this title, you will know how to help better their budget and help with some small accounting work. Supporting the Budget Reform in Ghana: The new Public Financial Management system put in place for Ghana will use tools for improving fiscal management and budgetary control. They will increase economic management by making technology upgrades that will help improve debt and cash management, and boost timely and accurate reporting. They will also improve budget managements strength. This new system will also aim to strengthen the credibility of the national budget. A strategy to aid Ghanas debt was developed by this new system. During the 2000s a legislative review was done on the Public Financial Management system and there were many components. Ghana had Financial and Accounting Reforms, Revenue Management, Audit Reform and Procurement Reforms. This system helped launch other systems such as the Budget and Public Expenditure Management System, it also influenced fiscal decentralization and payroll reform initiatives. They improved the payroll management system. The system also help build ministries, departments and agencies capacity to develop costed sector strategies. They want to strengthen linkage and information between sectors. To help the debt they want to strengthen capacity in the Debt Management Division. To help improve efficiency in the delivery of public services, they have introduced performance measurement into the budget management. This will help Ghana keep track of every credit spent. Ghanas government would as review capital spending and the strategy for financing capital projects. Ghana plans to bring in measures to strengthen local revenue under its fiscal decentralization reforms. Negatives of Budget Reform: Even with the new system there are still problems that can be created or come across. Ghanas government still have a high level of debt the need to lower, large fiscal deficits, and lack of fiscal space for public investments. These are major constraints to Ghanas economic growth, said Yusupha B. Crookes, World Bank Country Director for Ghana. The reforms supported by todays project focus on critical and priority areas of the Government that together could facilitate transparent and accountable fiscal governance in Ghana. Lack of robust accounting, monitoring quality and timely data on government resources. The Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability made an assessment in 2012 and fiscal discipline was weak and remained a concern. The distribution of resources for strategic priorities undermined causing efficiency in service delivery to be adversely affected. Ghana has invested in programs aimed at strengthening Public Financial Management in government, but significant institutional, policy, and system weaknesses continue to manifest themselves limiting the impact of these reforms, said Ismaila B. Ceesay, World Bank Task Team Leader for this Project. He believes that too many poor people live in Ghana to improve the delivery of basic services. There are even some legislative limitations that come with this new system. Making business change their process for the Public Financial Management system required revision of laws to support this process. Skill gaps and capacity were created in Human Resources sector, especially in the area of information and communications technology, and analytical skills. Critique of Both Arguments After going through both sides, I could tell both sides relied on some of the same things. Both sides have different view on Ghanas debt. Supporter of the new reform want to put programs in place to help lower the national debt overtime. On the bad side, they think that the debt is too high and the people basically think its a waste of time and money to create programs for lowering it. I agree with the people in support of these new ideas to lowering the debt and bring in more income into Ghana. How could a nation create a better budget with an outstanding debt? Me personally, I do not think that you can. I am in complete support of the new reform and the ideas that come with it. I can also see how the non-supporters are feeling. After being in place for a couple years, there was not a lot of changes. People were also using funds for the wrong purposes. Finding out this kind of information could make many people no trust in the new ideas. With the influx of new ideas for the reform, there are bound to be new problems to come along with it. I think Ghanas nation need better people to lead them in the right path. They need people who will watch and manage them while going through this process. I think that if they had more management they could make actual changes. These two arguments are very complementary to each other, without one the other would not exist. In my eyes the argument supporting the new budget and new reforms is the superior of the two. I think this because Ghana is known for being poor, and need something to help bring in income. Bring in more income will affect the public greatly. This could bring the number of poor people in Ghana to go down. This may also cause funding for projects to go to the right place. Conclusion: Ghana has a very poor budget and an outstanding debt to go along with it. Along with this their governmental structure is also poor and needs management in these areas. If Ghana gets the support they need in these areas, they could start to make real changes. Without management Ghanas government, will not make any large improvements and the reform will fail. This research has shown me that nations all around the world have a split in them. There will always be people on two opposite with different views. Public administrators will be greatly prepared for this situation. They would be great regulators and managers. Already being involved with work from both United States parties they will know how to look at each and try to work out a solution that works best for the people. References: Ugwumadu, Judith. Ghana Budget Ushers In Programme-Based PFM Reforms | Public Finance. Publicfinanceinternational.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 9 Mar. 2017. washington,. Public Finance Management Reform In Ghana Receives World Bank Support. The world Bank. N.p., 2017. Web. 4 Mar. 2017. Ibrahim, Levent. The Little Data Book On External Debt 2012. 1st ed. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2012. Print. Projects : Ghana: Public Financial Management Reform Project | The World Bank. Projects.worldbank.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 9 Mar. 2017.