Prepare handing-over notes before elections-Nii Moi

An economist, Dr Nii Moi Thompson, has proposed that six months before the handover time, all government appointees must ensure that institutions under their administration start preparing an inventory of programmes and projects expected, those being implemented and those already executed.
His suggestion was in addition to the call by the Ghana Political Parties Programme (GPPP) and the Institute of Economic Affairs’ (IEA) advice that the current four-week transition period between elections and handing over be extended to eight weeks by bringing election day forward to November 7.
Dr Thompson, who was a member of the 2001 transitional team, described his suggestion as “institutional transition”, where government appointees, especially ministers and DCEs, and the incoming government would have a dossier that would give it a better idea about what had been done so far and what was expected to be done.
He said any new administration would need an inventory of projects and programmes implemented and those yet to be implemented.
“The new administration would need to know all the financial inflows, inventory of internally generated funds, Government of Ghana funds, funds from donors, those expected and those that are being used,” Dr Thompson added.
According him, the six-month period inventory was necessary because of the culture of bad information and data generation, management and usage. “Even the current government has difficulty accessing data on its own performances, therefore, just imagine what will happen to an incoming government.”
He said from the bad experience of the 2001 transition, which he blamed on bad data collection, which was compounded by economic crisis, the collapse of the cedi, higher inflation and microeconomic dislocation, the call for the elections to be held on November 7 was very appropriate.
Dr Thompson also called for a review of the legal framework concerning the period of the transition to ensure that the administration of the country did not come to a halt, and cited the 2001 example where because there was no Finance Minister at the time, the Chief Director had to write letters to various ministries, departments and agencies to provide information that the transitional team wanted.
He said although those written to obliged and replied the request, in fact the chief director did not have the legal basis for making such requests.
He also raised the issue of spending and added that there should be a legal framework on spending during the period, because after the President had been sworn in, he would take time to appoint his ministers who would have to be vetted and approved by parliament.
Dr Thompson asked how the ministries, departments, agencies and bodies such the police and the military function, especially during emergencies that the country needed to spend money.
According to him, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on assumption of office had to freeze expenditure, especially on the payment of contractors by the former government, which later turned out to be a blessing for the country because some of the contractors had not executed any contract.