Prof Kwesi Botchwey, Chairman, NDPC presenting documents to President Akufo-Addo at the Flagstaff House
Members of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) yesterday brought their work to an end.
The decision to resign enbloc was to pave way for President Akufo-Addo to recompose the commission.
The announcement was made by the Chairman of the Commission, Professor Kwesi Botchwey, when he and his colleagues presented a National Development Plan to the president at the Flagstaff House yesterday.
“We as a commission chaired by me will like to collectively stand down, bring our tenure as a commission to a close,” he said after presenting the document to the president.
Their decision, he said, did not stem from any law or statute in the Constitution but in order to give the president the opportunity to recompose the commission in accordance with his own vision and priorities.
President Akufo-Addo commended members of the commission for their dedication and service to the nation and wished them well in their future endeavours.
“From the little I know of the operations of the commission, I am aware that each and every one of you, the members of the commission, have made significant input into this document. Your experience and knowledge have no doubt been brought to bear in the drafting of the document. I wish, again, to thank you all for the contribution you have made,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo also expressed his “sincere appreciation for the collective decision you have made, without the compulsion of law, to submit your collective resignation to allow the principle of ‘new king, new law’ to operate. It is a mark of high patriotism and I am grateful for it.”
He revealed that his government was done with the Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies.
Article 36(5) of the Constitution requires the President of the Republic to submit to parliament within the first two years of his administration the development policies.
However, President Akufo-Addo averred, “This time, we have worked to ensure it is completed within the first year of my tenure of office. Cabinet has approved it for submission to parliament. That will happen in the next session of parliament which begins next week.”
The plan submitted to him, he said, “presents my government and subsequent governments with a daunting task, not so much the implementation, but to stay on track and ensure we have the desired outcome. We must be able to monitor our progress, and redirect our paths when we seem to be deviating from them.”
With Ghana having celebrated its 60th independence anniversary in March this year, President Akufo-Addo noted, “In comparison to the likes of Korea, Singapore and Malaysia – countries which gained their independence around the same time as we did – it is evident that we should be further along in our national life than we currently are.”
He stressed that “we must, therefore, make rapid progress, and do things to ensure that we achieve it.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent