Concern expressed about funding of office of Common Fund Administrator

Members of Parliament on Friday expressed concern about the inadequate resources for the office of the Administrator of the District Assemblies' Common Fund.

They said due to the inadequate allocations of funds over the years, the Fund had been facing inadequate resource allocation, hence its unattractive workplace environment, poor logistics and high rate of staff turn-over.

The Office deals with all Ghanaians through the 110 District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies, the 10 Regional Coordinating Councils and the 200 Members of Parliament as well as other institutions whose activities impact on the country's development.

The Members were contributing to a Statement made by Prince Oduro-Mensah, Member of Parliament for Techiman South on the condition of the Office of the District Assemblies' Common Fund and its effects on national development.

Prince Oduro-Mensah said the office needed to be empowered financially to enable it to monitor the utilisation of the fund by the assemblies and their Chief Executives for the benefit of all Ghanaians adding that it should be positioned to refine data it received from the districts in order to produce a more acceptable and workable formula for the sharing of the Common Fund.

He said a comparison of the DACF with institutions like the Social Investment Fund (SIF) and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) indicated how the DACF was encumbered.

He said the DACF was not established only to disburse monies but also to ensure proper utilisation of the fund and it is expected to bring about some form of social change that would improve the standard of living of the people.

Whereas expenditures of the DACF are charged against the Consolidated Fund, the expenditures of the GETFund are paid out of the Fund itself, while the amount of 577.4 billion cedis administered by DACF was bigger than the 489.7 billion cedis the GETFund administers.

Prince Oduro-Mensah suggested that the one-half per cent of the two and half per cent reserve fund, about 2.5 billion cedis for this year, should be given to the office of the DACF to enhance its monitoring and reporting functions to ensure accountability and deeper development through the various district assemblies.

Capt. Nkrabea Effah- Dartey, NPP - Berekum, said it was important to realise that the Fund was set up to provide certain specific projects in the districts and any effort at re-directing it would only create much confusion.

Senior Minister Mr J.H. Mensah said the various Regional Coordinating Councils for their development programmes used some of the funds under the DACF.