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Dr Bob Offei Manteaw, Co-Founder and Director for Learning Affairs Africa (LAA), has lauded Government’s decision to set specific targets for all Ministers of State.

The targets and performance will be monitored and evaluated by the Ministry in-charge of Monitoring and Evaluation headed by Dr Anthony Osei Akoto.

Dr Manteaw has therefore urged government to publish targets set for the Ministers to ensure openness, trust and accountability.

Dr Manteaw who made the remarks in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said: “This is indeed a good governance approach to ensuring that ministers know exactly what they should be focusing on in their respective ministries.”

He however called on the government to go a step further by making those specific targets and performance known to the citizenry.

Dr Manteaw, who is also a Lead Advisor, Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction for African Resilience Collaborative, said government may have its own reasons to keeping those targets out of the public domain, adding: “But it should be a matter of public interest that targets are published to ensure openness and accountability.”

He noted that most governments including the previous government set targets for ministers but it was largely kept in wraps and only known to the Members of the Executive.

According to him, the public were denied useful knowledge of what the President had asked of his ministers and how they were pursuing those goals.

He said there were a lot of expectations from the government, which necessitated that things were done differently.
“The Ghanaian public is keen and interested in knowing what the key targets and performance of the ministers are in the pursuit of those targets.

“It is critical and important for the public to know these targets to get a sense of what is important to the government.
“I am of the view that if the government is indeed serious about ensuring efficiency through monitoring and evaluation, then setting targets and making those targets public should be seen as an added incentive and motivation for ministers and government appointees to perform,” he said.

Dr Manteaw said the targets sets for the ministers would have a multiplying effect on officers in all the ministries and their agencies.

He said each officer would work in tandem to facilitate the achievement of the broader targets of the ministry.
Dr Manteaw elsewhere targets defined the work of ministers’ right from the beginning were published on government websites as public information.

He said Ghana could possibly learn this practice by giving appointed ministers special letters that spells out the government’s overall vision and how the ministries’ targets will contribute to the broader vision.
"I am of the view that these targets should be boldly displayed in all Ministries to create a sense of awareness and direction.

“The Government is certainly doing something right; however, it needs to make this process complete by involving the public. The targets must be owned by the people and that is why it is important that they know what is expected of each minister and his or her ministry”.

Dr Manteaw said: "If there is real commitment to the process of monitoring and evaluation in government, the Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation might possibly become the most powerful and most feared Minister in the government.
"Feared not in a negative way, but in a way that puts his colleague ministers in check and this can only be good for Ghana’s democracy".