Transparency In Government's Bailout Programme For Private-Sector Entities Is Vital

It was announced recently that 100 distressed private-sector companies applied to the ministry of trade industry to be given some of the bailout funds earmarked by the government for such companies.

It is extremely important in an exercise of this nature that there is transparency in all aspects of implementing the bailout programme.

It is taxpayers' money after all - in an  era of transparency and  value-for-money  in the utilisation of public funds: an oft-repeated mantra in public of President Akufo-Addo.

If members of the president's  regime  want to be returned to power again in the November 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections, no one in this administration should forget that new good-governance-reality in our public life. Ever.

They must be transparent at all material times in their work for Mother Ghana. Consequently, as a matter of urgency, the ministry of trade and industry ought to produce the list of the 100 companies that applied for bailouts.

The ministry's officials must also let the nation know the criteria used in selecting the 50 companies that were eventually succcessful in receiving the bailout  money and the amounts of money involved in each case. Immediately. Not at some indeterminate point  in the future. No.

That is what Ghanaians expect from President Akufo-Addo's administration. Nothing more. Nothing less. Full stop. That is why the New Patriitic Party (NPP) was voted into power.

The dynamic minister for trade and industry, Hon Alan Kyremateng, must be commended for moving quickly to implement this all-important economic measure.

It is a key building block in the transformation of our homeland Ghana in the shortest possible timeframe within the election cycle.

In light of that, Hon Alan Kyremateng must  ensure that there is transparency in the government's bailout programme from day one of its implementation. That is vital - as it sends all the right signals to the world: about the seriousness the government attaches to the programme's success.