Minority Leader accuses Finance Minister of breaching District Assembly Common Fund law

Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu has lashed out at the Minister for finance, Ken Ofori-Atta for capping the budgetary allocation to the District Assembly Common Fund, adding that the amount allocated to the District Assembly Common Fund is in deficit of GHC143 million which is against legal requirement.

Contributing to the debate on Local government and Rural development budget on the floor of Parliament, Haruna Idrrisu argued that capping of the fund which is already heavily donor funded well greatly affect the operation of the District Development Fund.

According Haruna Iddrisu, his side will invoke the exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to seek an interpretation to what actually constituent total revenue of Government.

‘Mr. Speaker, am by this serving notice that we intend to invoke the exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court on this matter to seek an interpretation of the difference between total revenue as defined in act 252 of the constitution and also total revenue as defined in local governance act 936 of 2016 and then in particular relate it to the Ministers quest to dedicate 5% of government revenue.’

He also accused the finance Minister for breaching the law by not allotting the legally required amount to the District Assembly Common Fund.

Meanwhile Minister for Finance Ken Ofori-Atta has tabled a motion before parliament for the withdrawal the earmarking fund capping and alignment bill before parliament.

This move is seen as part of the current government’s desire to address the rigidities and imbalance in public expenditure and its ramification on revenue is a clear indication that the rationalization of statutory funding in annual budgets has the tendency of affecting governments’ financial planning.