Don’t misappropriate pro-poor aid funds – Kamara

Mr Siapha Kamara, Chief Executive Officer of the SEND West Africa, has appealed to Government not to divert aid funds meant for pro-poor programs into other areas of the economy for purposes of winning elections.

He said since 2012 was an election year, it was possible that aid funds meant to address the needs of the poor could be diverted into other areas of the economy so as to win the sympathy of the electorate.

Mr Kamara made the appeal in Accra on Wednesday in a National Review Workshop on Aid and Development Effectiveness aimed at providing an enabling environment for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to dialogue and share ideas on how aid funds could be disbursed judiciously.

Mr Kamara said it was necessary for CSOs to monitor the activities of government on how it spent aid funds and ensure that such funds and revenue were spent in accountable and transparent manner.

“Focus on ensuring that aid funds and revenues mobilized are spent in an accountable and transparent manner, so that  funds for pro-poor programs are not diverted to other areas of the national economy” he said.

Mr Kamara said about 20 % of the 2011 budget was accounted for by international development assistance, which came in as grants and loans and that aid was spent on pro-poor sectors and development infrastructure in general.

He said CSOs would continue to partner government by ensuring that effective monitoring mechanisms would be put in place to scrutinize how MMDAs utilized donor funds.

Mrs Florence Dennis, Executive Secretary of Ghana Anti Corruption Coalition, said the activities of CSOs were geared towards providing support to assist vulnerable groups and help protect human rights.

She said questions had been raised on the effectiveness of the models used in the aid process and why aid was not achieving the expected results and stressed the need for CSOs to collaborate to achieve their objectives.

Mrs Dennis said the open forum for Development Effectiveness was not a permanent institution, but a global process established by CSOs worldwide to create a shared framework of principles that defined effective CSO development practice.

Source: GNA