To strengthen the legal and regulatory framework for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and boost confidence in the private sector in the PPP programme, a PPP Bill has been submitted to cabinet for onward transmission to Parliament for its consideration.
In addition, regulations and guidelines will be developed to support the implementation of the PPP Law, when enacted.
Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Senior Minister, made these known at the launch of the Disclosure Diagnostic Framework and Web-based Portal for the Ghana Public-Private Partnership programme in Accra on Friday.
The Disclosure Framework, jointly developed by the Government of Ghana and the World Bank, identifies the key areas that need to be disclosed to the public at any given time.
The Framework also provides standard contractual provisions that will be incorporated into PPP contracts to show how information related to such contracts will be captured and shared with third parties to such contracts.
On the other hand, and as part of the Transparency and Accountability project, a web-based portal has been developed to provide information agreed on in the Disclosure Framework. The portal shows basic information on some projects which are at various stages in the PPP process.
Mr Osafo-Maafo disclosed that Ghana had signed onto the Open Government Partnership (OGP) since 2011, under which Ghana had made commitments to transparency and accountability in governance.
The Senior Minister said two OGP Action Plans had been developed since 2011 and that his office, with responsibility for Public Sector Reform, would develop the third OGP Action Plan and continue to pass relevant legislation to further enhance transparency in Government business to boost confidence in the private sector, Development Partners and the general public.
He cited inadequate transparency and accountability as key challenges in processes leading to the execution of PPP concession agreements and the implementation of PPP projects, adding that the Disclosure Framework was an effort by the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank to provide an enabling environment to ensure that all PPP activities were very transparent to attract the private sector to do business with Government in the development and improvement of infrastructure to accelerate the country's socio-economic development.
Mr Osafo-Maafo gave the assurance that Government was fully committed to the PPP programme and appealed to the managers of the web-based portal to apply the highest standards of professionalism in the management of the portal to ensure that stakeholders received relevant information on projects regularly to elicit their interest in the country's development agenda.
In a statement delivered on his behalf, Mr Henry Godfrey Rupiny Kerali, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, underscored the importance of Good Governance of infrastructure as a necessary condition for creating a robust infrastructure programme which would crowd-in private sector investment and maximize finance for development.
Mr Kerali said Good Governance could reduce Africa's infrastructure-spending requirements by as much as US $17 billion a year, adding that Good Governance lowered the cost of capital and created reputational benefits for countries to attract additional investment and talent.
He was optimistic that the Disclosure framework would improve private investor confidence and improve transparency and accountability in PPPs in Ghana.
Source: ISD (G.D Zaney)
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