Minister tasked District Assemblies to be proactive in revenue

generation

Kumasi, July 9, GNA- Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, said on Thursday that the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) was only a budget supplement and not a replacement of the internally generated revenue of the District Assemblies.

He has therefore tasked the District Assemblies' to make concerted efforts to improve upon their revenue performance.

Mr Boafo was addressing the closing session of a three-day training workshop on the Monitoring and Reporting on the Fund in Kumasi. The workshop, the first in a series, was organised by the Institute of Local Government Studies and the Office of the Administrator of the Common Fund.

The participants comprised officials from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), and Kwabre; Asante-Akim South; Afigya-Sekyere, Adansi East and Amansie West District Assemblies.

Mr Boafo said: "As personnel of the local Government system, it is your responsibility to properly account for the DACF and all other public funds and to ensure their judicious use in the interest of the people."

In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Joshua Magnus Nicol, Administrator of the DACF, said more of such workshops would be organised to enable the Government achieve the objectives for which the Fund was established.

"We expect some improvement in your reporting and... ensure the monies transferred are not misused".

Miss Abigail Awuah-Peasah, a Research Assistant at the Institute of Local Government Studies and Coordinator of the workshop, said the training programme became necessary because of lapses in the utilisation of the Fund.