The three-year project, which is being supported by the World Bank, has four components which are: Strengthening Ghana Revenue Authority’s business intelligence systems; Strengthening Ministry of Finance’s debt management; Strengthening the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC); and improving the governance of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

Mrs. Mona Helen Quartey, Deputy Minister of Finance who launched the project in Accra commended the World Bank for its support and assured that Ghana would not compromise on value for money in the implementation of the project whose ultimate goal is to reduce poverty and ensure equitable distribution of wealth.

A statement issued by the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Finance quoted the deputy minister as saying: “Modernisation of tax revenue collection was very important and expressed the hope that this project will support GRA to align with international best practices and improve revenue inflows by expanding the base.”

She noted that Ghana’s debt servicing was high and that the fiscal stabilisation programme which aims at curbing the accumulation of debts, would be helped by this project and also the institutional reforms would strengthen the debt management strategy.

On the SOE’s component, she explained that at the instance of GoG, the World Bank undertook a corporate governance review of some selected SOEs focusing on potential areas for improvement as previous reports indicated imperfect governance of most SOEs.

“GEMS-TA will therefore support the improvement of SOE governance – strengthening the legal and regulatory framework and state ownership role”, she emphasised.

Mr. Errol George Graham, Senior Economist at the World Bank who represented the Country Director stated that the World Bank was pleased that the project was now a reality and assured of the bank’s total support for a successful implementation of the project.

“The GEMS project is an important project for both Ghana and the Bank. For Ghana. It supports important reforms that can potentially improve the country’s economic management in the four strategic areas. These reforms are key priorities for GoG at this time,” he added.

He said these projects all together will have significant impact on the economy by building institutional capacity and ultimately lead to significant reduction in poverty.

By Times Reporter