Ho, Dec. 14, GNA - Mr Gabriel Yaw Amoah, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government and Rural Development, on Saturday criticised District Chief Executives (DCEs) for failing to attend the first of the regional consultative workshops on the formula for distribution of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) in Ho.
Mr Mawutor Goh, Ho District, Mr Pious Adanuti, Kpando and Mr Emmanuel Vorkeh, Keta, were the only DCEs out of 12 in the Volta Region who were present for the first part of the workshop.
"If you complain about the disbursement of the fund and somebody provides money and risks his life to organise a seminar to address the issue and you would not come; it is a shame, tell them", Mr Amoah stated, adding that if he were President he would sack them.
The workshop, which is being organised by the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) with sponsorship from Action Aid, Ghana was preceded by one at Akosombo last month to enhance the knowledge of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Fund and the factors that go into its distribution.
Mr Amoah said the exercise to address concerns over the distribution of the Common Fund was at the instance of the Speaker of Parliament following persistent and stringent reservations expressed by stakeholders over the issue.
He said after the workshops a report would be presented to Parliament to enable it come out with a good formula of distribution that would satisfy the needs of every district.
Mr David Fianko, Head of Information and Documentation of the ILGS said the input of the DCEs were important since they were the disbursers of the fund and also expressed regret over their low turn out.
Mr Goh, in a keynote address said the criteria for the distribution of the fund should include the number of constituencies and communities in a district to enable urban districts cater for their pressing needs. He also suggested that allocations should be made for sanitation in urban districts with special considerations for district capitals, which also serve as regional capitals.
Mr Goh said the reserve fund should be made available to the districts for use in times of disasters, which could strike at any time. Mr Joshua Magnus Nichol, Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) emphasised that the Fund was for development projects and not for investment in banks to accrue interest.
He said the 1.1 per cent average used for rural housing did not reflect the housing needs of assemblies most of which could not attract qualified staff because of the lack of accommodation.
Mr Nichol suggested that loans under the Poverty Alleviation package administered by the district assemblies with money from the fund be handled by professionals at the banks to allow efficient management. Professor John Kwesi Nsarko, a Resource person also suggested that poverty alleviation programmes were reverted to the Department of Social Welfare and that cooperatives rather than individuals should be the beneficiaries of such loans.
