President John Agyekum Kufuor has sworn Joshua Magnus Nicol a 54 year old Chartered Accountant into office as the Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund.
President Kufuor administered the official and oath of secrecy to Nicol at a short ceremony at the Castle, Osu. He said the Fund had become a major component in local government administration in the country but in the past most district assemblies did not obtain enough of the resources from the fund for their development programmes.
President Kufuor, therefore, urged Nicol to work out a formula for the sharing of the resources to ensure equity and in addition ensure the funds disbursed were used effectively and judiciously.
He said as a central figure in the decentralisation process, the Administrator must ensure that there was no backlog in the disbursement of the fund as pertained in the past "You must ensure that no backlog occurred during your tenure of office", the President told the Administrator.
Nicol gave the assurance that he would not let the nation down but that he would work with due diligence to serve the nation. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development told newsmen that the backlog in the release of fund since 2000 had been cleared and there were no arrears.
He said the monies which had accrued from the five per cent taxes into the fund, this year, would be released to the assemblies for development projects after the new administrator had come out with a formula for the disbursement after it had been approved by Parliament.
Parliament on Tuesday, 29 October unanimously approved the nomination of Nicol, as Administrator of the Fund. Nicol, who is also a Chartered Management Accountant, and a Marketing Professional will be in office for four years.
