The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, has said it is time for the nation at 60 years to start doing things in a better way to enable it to transform to an industrial economy.
He said it was long overdue for the nation to enforce and implement relevant legislations, policies and programmes and stop doing the ‘business as usual’ things and allow discipline and rule of law to override all endeavours of national life.
Dr Letsa was addressing the opening ceremony of the annual conference of Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICA) Ghana on the theme, “The transformation of Ghana’s Economy; 60 years after Independence” in Ho yesterday.
fight corruption
He said as accountants, they must be at the forefront to champion the fight against corruption in the public and private sectors to nip the fast-growing canker which was becoming a norm in the society in the bud.
Dr Letsa said although the government, like previous ones, had gone to the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank for structural adjustment programmes to cure the economy, the economic independence anticipated was still elusive.
He said the cumulative effect of erratic power supply had affected the industrial and mining sectors resulting in a downward spiral in employment opportunities accompanied by high employee layoffs and said the attainment of the 60th milestone was an opportunity to start doing things differently and in a better way.
Decision makers
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said chartered accountants had essentially become members of the decision-making process in institutions and organisations and in political governance.
He, therefore, enjoined them to support the government to deliver its programmes towards the improvement of economic standard of living of citizens and that despite economic difficulties, government remained focused and committed in delivering on its mandate to the people.
“After 60 years of independence, we deserve to be better than we find ourselves now. It is time for the re-birth Ghana. A Ghana which generations yet unborn would inherit and be proud of ”, he said.
Dr Bawumia said chartered accountants must eschew acts that hurt public finance management objectives and arrangements and be more devoted to the accountability and stewardship role in keeping the public purse with the integrity and transparency it deserved.
Image of the profession
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ho Central, Mr Benjamin Komla Kpodo, said the profession was confronted with the problem of “image maintenance.”
He called for high ethical values to bring about “reputation maintenance” and perform their duties diligently with high professionalism to maintain the image.
The President of ICA(Ghana), Mr Christian Sottie, said the nation at 60 needed to rise up to rebuild the motherland and fight the rot in society and added that the society had deteriorated with negative effects on the economy.
He, therefore, appealed to participants at the conference to engage themselves to assist government in its efforts to ensure that the natural resources were properly controlled and managed with the limited resources judiciously utilised.