Accra, Friday 29th March, 2019 – Management of the Ministry of Finance last week held its annual management retreat to take stock of its achievements and map up strategies for 2019.
The annual event brought together the Minister for Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, and his Deputy Ministers, Hon. Kwaku Kwarteng, Hon. Charles Adu Boahen and Hon. Abena Osei-Asare, the Chief Director of the Ministry, Mr. Patrick Nomo, Divisional Directors, some Unit Heads as well as heads of Ghana Revenue Authority and the Controller and Accountant Generals’ Department.
Opening the programme, the Minister for Finance noted that it was imperative for custodians of the public purse to meet and brainstorm on innovative ways of ensuring the macroeconomic indicators continued to remain strong.
“What can we all do differently, especially we the politicians so that when we exit, we can be proud of what we were able to do for mother Ghana”, he stated.
Management retreats are annual meetings where Hon. Minister for Finance together with management and agencies under the ministry meet within the 1st quarter of the year. Such meetings afford the leadership the opportunity to take retrospective look at the previous years’ performance and put mechanisms in place to address challenges that the Ministry faced and plan ahead.
He charged the gathering to embrace themselves for a busy year as government was also on track to fulfil all of its promises to the good people of Ghana.
After enumerating the successes of the government which included the unprecedented Eurobond issuance, the successful exit from the IMF ECF among others, the Minister for Finance wondered why some people still doubted the achievement of the government.
“We should be bold to propagate the good work of the government”, The Bankers’ 2018 Best Finance Minister in Africa stated.
The Minister revealed in his speech that government was very committed this year to its 16 priority areas which included the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO), One District One Factory, Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP), School Feeding, Zongo Development Fund, Micro Finance and Small Loans Centers (MASLOC), Planting for Food and Jobs, Railway sector among others.
He underscored the need for directors to train subordinate staff to effectively transform the Ministry into an international standard as each and every staff was an ambassador of the Ministry.
Mr. Tony Oteng Gyasi, Chairman of Tropical Cables and Conductors Limited in a keynote advised the Ministry and its agencies to visit some of the companies that pay huge taxes to have firsthand information on the challenges such companies face.
This, he noted, would influence management’s tax decisions going forward as government needed to consider how to support and sustain the local content in all its policies.
Mr Oteng Gyasi who is also a member of the MoF Ministerial Board cited China’s model as example, saying, there had to be ruthless and vigorous competition in the tendering process for any government contract.
“Whether you belong to the ruling party or not, one must pass through so many processes and checks in the tendering process before you will get government contract”, he explained.
Mr. Patrick Nomo, Chief Director of the Ministry also noted that the current macroeconomic indicators were very good and urged the gathering to continue the good work.
“We have all contributed to the success story of this country so let us continue to use every opportunity to reposition and restrategise the ministry so that we can look back years later and proudly say the decisions we took were good and worthwhile”, he advised.
Chief Director noted that with such great team spirit and unity of purpose, there was nothing the Ministry would not be able to achieve if we set our hearts and minds to it.
There were presentations by the various Divisions and Agencies. END