On
Ghana, IMF
Tells ICP
$918M Program
Will Be
Transparent -
But Will It?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
3 -- Less than
an hour after
the
International
Monetary Fund
announced that
its Executive
Board had
approved a
$918 million
program for
Ghana, IMF
Mission Chief
Joel
Toujas-Bernate
held a media
conference
call.
Inner City
Press asked
Toujas-Bernate
what role
there will be
for civil
society in
evaluating the
program, about
access to
information
and oversight
of Ghana’s
National
Petroleum
Company.
Toujas-Bernate
replied that
"transparency
in public
finance" was,
in fact, a
focus "in
particular to
respond to
need for
better access
to data on
budget
preparation
and execution
[to] broaden
support for
reform program
of
authorities."
He said, "we
have engaged
during
negotiations
with civil
society
representatives
and we
signaled that
transparency
will be
increased to
all of Ghana's
society." He
said that
Ghana has
signed on to
the Extractive
Industries
Transparency
Initiative
(EITI). He
said, "All
program
documents will
be published
soon."
But why were
at least some
of the program
documents made
available
during this
process? If it
wasn't
transparent
then, will it
be in the
future?
Joy FM asked
about the
upcoming
elections --
the IMF said
it got
commitments
from the
president
himself -- and
Bloomberg
asked about
the impact of
interest rates
in the US. And
that was it.
, 
