Shai-Osudoku District Assembly faces financial crisis

Mr Kofi Boateng-Acheampong, the District Co-ordinating Director of the Shai-Osudoku District Assembly, Dodowa, has expressed worry at the lack of fund of the assembly.

He said since the last quarter of last year, the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF), due the assembly, was yet to be released.

“The demand on the assembly is such that we cannot contain it, since November, the Government has not given the assembly a penny and we have to sustain the assembly.

“There are so many instances and the assembly’s resources are limited,” Mr Boateng-Acheampong said at the District Town Hall Meeting and Budget Literacy Campaign held at Dodowa.

He expressed worry at how the district was handicapped with office facilities as well as the absence of officers from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and Ministry of Sports in the district.

Mr Boateng-Acheampong has, therefore, called on the various ministries to help address the problem by providing them with officers who would be a link between them and the ministries for effective coordination.

He said owing to the poor results of students who took part in last year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination due to lack of supervision by teachers, the Assembly had tasked Circuit Supervisors to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation role of teachers to help promote the academic performance of students in the district.

Mr Boateng-Acheampong said to ensure sanity in the district, there was going to be a routine inspection of households and public sanitary facilities.

He, therefore, appealed to citizens to observe hygienic practices that would help promote the welfare of Dodowa.

“I plead with you all not to let your stray animals destroy hedges and other beautifications of the district. I also urge drivers whose reckless driving damage street lights to be cautious,” he said.

According to Mr Boateng-Acheampong, the meeting which served as a democratic turn out where citizens were actively involved in the budget and project development of the district would be organised timely to help address their concerns.

Mrs Harriet Nuamah Agyemang, the Programme Officer for SEND-GHANA, the Co-Host of the Town Hall Meeting, said Ghana was fully practicing the decentralisation system and it was imperative that the citizens were involved in the local government system.

She said this would enhance citizens’ interest in the budgeting process to enable them to provide inputs rather than leaving resource allocation and utilisation in the hands of public officials whose interests and priorities might not necessarily reflect that of the ordinary citizen.

Mrs Nuamah Agyemang appealed to the Government to release DACF timely for the assembly’s development.

She urged the assembly to work transparently to prevent corrupt practices and rope in more funds by blocking all leakages.

“As citizens, we have to also be honest to ourselves as a people. By doing so we can hold government accountable,” she said.

The participants included representatives of some organisations in the Shai-Osudoku District, market women, social workers, assembly members and some government officials.

Some of the participants who spoke to the Ghana News Agency said the event was well organised and very interactive which gave them the opportunity to make their inputs.

SEND-GHANA is a non-governmental organisation that works to promote good governance and equality of women and men and to guarantee people’s rights and well being in Ghana.