ENHANCING THE PEOPLE'S WELL-BEING (NOV 9)

ONE of the functions of a political party, apart from providing a vent for the realisation of representative government, is to provide leadership for the steering of the affairs of state after securing the mandate of the people in free-and-fair elections.
This mandate given by the people to the leadership of the political party transforms such personalities from sectional to national leaders.
This imposes upon the leadership a social contract between it (the government) and the people, in which the support and demands of the latter contribute substantially to informing the decisions and actions of the former.
Thus through this arrangement, which has secured the support of the people (the electorate), the government strives to work to meet the interests and aspirations of the people, foremost of which is improving the material conditions of their lives.
Only last week, the President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, embarked upon a four-day tour of the Ashanti Region. This followed similar tours by the President to other regions of the country.
At a meeting with the chiefs and people of the region, the President emphasised two main themes:
That the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) he leads would not discriminate against the region on the grounds that he did not win there, and that measures had been put in place to reverse the myriad of economic challenges he inherited. He, therefore, called for patience to enable the measures to yield fruitful dividends sooner than later.
The massive deficit, rapid rise in inflation, the continued depreciation of the cedi and the huge debts at institutions ranging from the District Assemblies to the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) among others, clearly undermine effecting an immediate and a significant improvement in the well-being of the people.
We have taken judicious notice of some of the dividends including the reduction in inflation rate, stabilisation and even improvement in the exchange rate regime and the payments of debts and consequent reduction in the deficit, all of which emanate from actions instituted by the government to arrest the decline. We are also not oblivious of the harsh global recession to which Ghana cannot claim immunity.
While we commend the government for these achievements and hope that the same level of financial and economic prudence will be attained to help attain a higher growth rate, we nevertheless believe that some waste still exists in the public sector and this needs to be tackled to save and conserve national resources.
The government also needs to tighten up serious areas of revenue leakage resulting from malfeasance by some officials of revenue collection agencies, in particular collusion, under-invoicing and the abuse of the transit process at the various entry points by officials of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS).
The challenge of attaining a higher growth to anchor a better life for the people, does not lie only in reducing government expenditure but also in increasing revenue and productivity in the productive areas of the economy. These need the collective efforts of all.
We are happy that the President has given the assurance of non-discrimination in the allocation of the national cake on political and other sectional grounds.
The President in the course of these tours has direct touch with the people and it is our hope that with this first-hand information from them, he would take their concerns and interests on board in the formulation and implementation of national policies.