The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has advocated for the implementation of a comprehensive national development plan to effectively guide Allocation of Budgeted Funding Amount (ABFA) to maximize its impact.Mr Edward Yaw Afriyie, PIAC committee member, emphasized the pivotal role PIAC played in promoting transparency and accountability in the management of petroleum revenue in Ghana, adding that challenges such as lack of enforcement mechanisms and the decline in oil production in existing fields persisted.Mr Afriyie made the call during a presentation from the 2023 PIAC Annual report at a media engagement in Sunyani for media personnel from the Ahafo, Bono, and Bono East Regions.The engagement aimed to foster collaboration between PIAC and media professionals in the three regions to enhance public awareness and activities of PIAC in the regions.Mr Afriyie said PIAC recommended that the selection of the ABFA priority areas should be guided by a long-term national development plan approved by Parliament in accordance with the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA), 2011, Act 815.He said the Committee had urged the Ministry of Finance to showcase the importance of prioritization through the amount of ABFA allocated to the Industrialization priority area.Additionally, he stressed the need for the Finance Ministry to ensure that the ABFA allocated to the District Assembly Common Fund was utilized in line with the provisions of the PRMA.Mr Afriyie highlighted that crude oil production declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2023, with production decreasing from 71.44 million barrels in 2019 to 48.25 million barrels in 2023, representing an annual average decline of 9.2 percent.He, therefore, urged the government and relevant regulatory bodies to take necessary steps to reverse the production decline on existing oil fields and to encourage investments in unexploited fields.Nana Kwaku Dei, the Nkosuohene of Pakro and Chairman of the Public Affairs and Communications Sub-Commit tee of PIAC, urged the media to leverage their platform to hold governments accountable for properly utilizing of public funds.Source: Ghana News Agency
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