Ghana - 2009 External Review of Public Expenditures and Financial Management : Volume 1. Main report

Abstract

The 2009 External Review of Public
 Expenditures and Financial Management (ERPEFM) is the fifth
 in a series of annual assessments by some of the development
 agencies that contribute to the Multi-Donor Budgetary
 Support (MDBS) in Ghana. The review was prepared in close
 collaboration and after extensive discussions with senior
 government officials in the Government of Ghana, in
 particular with officials from the ministry of finance and
 economic planning. The main purpose of the review is to
 inform based on research findings the policy dialogue on
 public financial management that takes place in Ghana. The
 implementation of the 2009 budget is happening against the
 backdrop of the Government's stated objective of
 reducing the overall fiscal deficit to 9.4 percent of gross
 domestic product (GDP), down from an estimated 14.5 percent
 in 2008. The remainder of this chapter is organized as
 follows. Section B recapitulates the change in Ghanaian
 public finances in 2008. Section C discusses the
 country's fiscal outlook and the policy challenges
 ahead. Section D closes the chapter with the main
 conclusions and recommendations.