Cabinet meets to assess government’s output in 2013 first quarter
Cabinet is holding a special meeting on Thursday to review the performance of government in the first quarter of the year, Mr Mahama Ayariga, Minister for Information and Media Relations, has said.
He said the meeting would appraise government in the micro economy and fiscal prudence, and to find solutions to government short comings.
Mr Ayariga said these when he addressed the maiden daily media briefings, at the Flagstaff House, Accra.
The daily briefings, he explained would provide a platform for government officials to give adequate information on the daily happenings at the Presidency and clear the air on current issues of governance.
The briefings would also provide fertile grounds for the media to put government on its toes through the daily interactions, Mr Ayariga said.
He said ‘’most of the Cabinet special meeting discussions would be focused on targets of budgets and measures to improve on their performance in subsequent months’’.
Mr Ayariga noted that the daily encounter would be based on various themes, but it would admit concerns and questions on other issues.
The Minister explained that although the opportunity could in future be extended to other journalists in the country, it would for now engage only the Presidential Press Corps in the daily deliberations, and called on the media to honour it appropriately.
He said the performance of the economy in the last quarter was fair although there were challenges in the energy sector and other industrial actions.
On load-shedding, Mr Ayariga said there had been tremendous improvements since the inauguration of additional electricity projects, but admitted that there were still some challenges that would be surmounted in the shortest time.
He said government had no intention of setting another agenda at the Presidency to create a positive image for government, but “the people need to know what is happening and we have the responsibility to explain those issues to them.”
Source: GNA
It’s a good start. Information must be made available and accessible to all and should be timely, accurate and factual as possible. We urge our journalist to desist from twisting facts but rather disseminate such informations in the desired manner. Kudos, it’s a brilliant idea.
It is NOT sufficient to come tell us each day “The government borrowed $10 Mil yesterday—-“, or “President Mahama is attending a durbar in the Volta—–” or “Parliament approved a pay hike —-”’, etc. etc. What we need to hear is what development plans, means, modes, and methods of accomplishing them, agreed by the populace or think tanks are in the pipeline, and a daily briefing of VERIFIABLE target points of the plans.