Mr. Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, the Western Regional Minister, has called for the reprioritization of the railway sector to ensure that full work on expansion and rehabilitation is completed to spur economic growth.
He noted with appreciation, the massive injection of the Petroleum Revenue Fund in the sector and the quality of work done so far and tasked the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) to impress upon spending officers of the state, for more commitment to revamping the sector.
The Regional Minister pointed out that “when the railway redevelopment project becomes fully operational, the burden on the road infrastructure would be reduced as cargo, mineral equipment, transportation of bauxite, among others, could easily reach their destination by rail in real time.”
Also, farmers would heave a sigh of relief as food products would no longer stay in farms and rot due to road inaccessibility and market linkages problems.
The Western Regional Minister was speaking at the Regional Public Forum on the Management and Use of Ghana’s Petroleum Revenue organised by the PIAC in Takoradi in the Western Region.
Mr. Darko-Mensah said the region had witnessed significant growth with the injection of oil revenues particularly in education where currently Senior High School enrolment had shored from 13,000 to over 600,000 adding, this is also a legacy project in effect…” what is needed more is capital injection into entrepreneurial ideas to create more employment avenues.”
He reminded the PIAC of the special role the region played in the drilling of the resource aside the production of gold, cocoa and rubber among others, which demanded state actors to pay special attention to the region.
The Western Regional Minister also tasked the PIAC to collect and issue management reports to feed the public on happenings in the sector even before they compiled sector annual report for the public to make the necessary scrutiny and inputs.
Emerita Professor Elizabeth Ardeyfio Schandorf, the Chairperson of PIAC, run the public through findings and recommendations in the 2023 annual report.
She mentioned that among the pressing concerns from the public, were why some International Oil Companies had left without recourse to paying surface rentals; the need for more local expertise into the running of the sector; revival of defunct factories with oil monies to boost industralisation; and more social investment projects in oil operating communities.
Other concerns were the need for specialised hospitals to handle emergencies in real time; provision of Magnetic Re Imagery Machines; and other critical health equipment with oil funds for all regions to avoid overload at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
The rest were; the need for the PIAC to secure court assistance to move industry players on compliance on the recommendations of the PIAC over the years; as well as the need for one project at a time as against the current trend of pleasing every sector of the Ghanaian society with fragmented projects leading to many burdened and uncompleted projects.
