US Treasury Secretary Mr Paul O'Neill, in Africa to investigate boosting developing countries' wealth, said yesterday that international donors must demand results to prove their aid was spent efficiently.
"We have to be hard-headed and demand results - that is our responsibility to the impoverished people of Africa," Mr O'Neill told the American Chamber of Commerce on the first full day of a four-nation African tour with Irish rock singer Bono.
The two arrived in Ghana late on Monday night and are to tour Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia together.
The unusual pair - Bono dressed casually in an open-necked shirt and Mr O'Neill in a business suit and accompanied by Secret Service agents - toured a local US-owned business after meeting Ghanaian President John Kufuor and his cabinet.
The US Treasury chief, a critic of past lending by international financial institutions such as the World Bank, is promoting private initiatives in Africa.
He toured one such venture in Accra which processes companies' medical claim forms and is located in a modern building that contrasted with its run-down surroundings.
Mr O'Neill said the venture's success and the fact its wages were several times the $1 a day that is common in Ghana, were proof private enterprise could deliver.
Bono, the front man of the rock group U2 who has taken to heart the issue of debt relief for poor countries and increased aid, was more cautious in his praise of the operation.
"As long as the workers and the governments of these places are exploiting the corporate world in a kind of symbiotic relationship, I think that's fine," he said.
Mr O'Neill suggested Ghana should be pursuing investment-grade ratings for its sovereign debt, seeking international credit-rating agencies approval for its loans so they could be bought and sold in world capital markets.
But Ghanaian government officials, in a briefing presented for Mr O'Neill, that they insisted be opened to the 25 or so reporters accompanying the US Treasury chief, outlined more modest goals of doubling the usual per capita income for Ghana's 19 million people to about $800 (€870) over the next decade.
One government member also said huge US government subsidies for American farmers, which augment farm and dairy payments by billions of dollars that Africa cannot match, were a blow to the continent and hoped they would be temporary.
Mr O'Neill also renewed his pitch for replacing many loans made by the World Bank and other institutions with grants.
He said that would "eliminate the need for governments to tax their people in order to repay the principal and interest - and thereby eliminate the next generation of debt servicing problems for the poorest nations".
