Govt earmarks 5% of revenue to assemblies

Henceforth, five per cent of government's internally generated funds would be lodged in a special account monthly as a built up for the District Assembly Common Fund.

Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), told Parliament that the Ministry of Finance has resorted to that plan because, "it would help solve the delays associated with disbursement of the Fund."

Government is constitutionally obliged to disburse annually not less than five person of locally generated revenue to District Assemblies based on a formula approved by Parliament.

The Minister was reacting to concerns raised by Members of Parliament (MPs) during a debate for the adoption of the formula for sharing the 2002 District Assembly Common Fund.

He said a number of financial and administrative instruments, including the "guidelines for the utilisation of the Common Fund" and the "Financial Memo" which has just been revised since coming into being in 1961, would be tabled in Parliament very soon for approval.

Baah-Wiredu asked the MPs to attend meetings of their respective Assemblies and endeavour to assert themselves when necessary. "We have to change the old way of doing things in our assemblies, I personally went through a lot of difficulties when we were not in power and I think this should not happen to any MP."

Alhaji Abdulai Salifu, NDC-Tolon, called for an effective monitoring of the use of the common fund to spare government and the ordinary people corrupt practices and waste. He said poor date collection and the lack of it do not help in the fashioning of well-informed formula leading to improper allocation of resources.

The member said several indicators in health and education delivery did not reflect the reality on the ground. Alhaji Salifu said the inclusion of the Water Coverage factor in the formula would accelerate the pace of water facility development in the rural areas.

He lamented the 5.1 per cent of potable water coverage of the Tolon area and called for immediate steps to address the issue. Alhaji M.A. Seidu,NDC-Wa Central, said: "The District Assembly Common Fund is one of the best things that ever happened to Ghana, but ironically it has made certain districts too lazy to generate revenue on their own."

He called on the MLGRD to encourage district Assemblies to raise enough revenue on their own so that their share of the common fund would be regarded as supplementary income.

Joseph Akudibillah, NPP-Garu/Tempane, proposed a sturdy increase in the percentage of the common fund to meet developmental needs of the districts. "We should increase the percentage by 0.5 per cent every year until the current level of 5 per cent gets to 10 per cent."

Samuel Ofosu Ampofo,NDC-Fanteakwa, called for the amendment of the District Assembly Common Fund Act to make room for the appointment of a deputy Administrator who would stand in for the substantive during emergencies.

He asked that each district should be encouraged to build a reliable data facility to feed national programmes and projections. The member called on potentially rich assemblies like Accra, Kumasi and Shama Ahanta to be up and doing so that poor rural assemblies could access the fund for speedy development.

He criticised government on its directive to the assemblies to use the HIPC funds for only health and educational activities. "District Assemblies have their individual peculiar problems and needs.

Issues of poverty vary from assembly to assembly. In my area where majority of the poor are farmers, I would have preferred investing in agriculture and related areas." Ampofo asked MLGDRD to publish the names of lazy and corrupt assemblies periodically for the public to know where government is wasting resources.