Poor local revenue mobilization problem of assemblies

Sunyani (B/A) June 27, GNA- Mr. Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, has noted that poor mobilization of local revenue has been a major problem facing district assemblies in the country.

He said "Most assemblies have inadequate revenue base and no matter the modalities put in place they cannot collect enough revenue," and even those with huge revenue base have not been able to improve local revenue generation.

Mr. Baffour-Awuah was speaking was at a one-day workshop on the drafting of a local government finance bill, organized by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment for stakeholders at Sunyani.

The workshop was also expected to discuss the establishment of the Municipal Finance Authority in Ghana for metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies and regional coordinating councils in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.

Mr. Baffour-Awuah noted that most assemblies could not undertake meaningful development without the District Assembly Common Fund. He said many people were of the view that decentralization could be strengthened if the capital base of assemblies was expanded to enable them to borrow money from the capital market to undertake projects and provide services more efficiently.

Mr. Baffour-Awuah said "The proposed local government finance bill is therefore appropriate and timely," and urged the participants to make inputs on the various sections of the bill before it went to parliament to be passed into law.

Mr. Abraham Odoom, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, in a speech read on his behalf, said most political leaders believed that decentralization was the key to accelerated economic development.

He explained that although the country had achieved significant decentralization in political administration, as well as decentralized planning, fiscal decentralization had been the unyielding component of the process.

Mr. Odoom emphasized that government had made significant efforts at strengthening local government finance and diversifying financing methods through the reformation of taxation and expenditure systems to reshape inter-governmental transfers and privatise projects. He said the Ministry had embarked on a Municipal Finance and

Management Initiative with the view of developing a sustainable vibrant and reliable local credit market to enable the assemblies to cope with backlog of service delivery.

Mr. Odom said the smooth take off of the Municipal Finance and Management Initiative project would pave way for increased revenue generation and mobilization in the country.

He said a critical component of the success of the programme was the opportunity for assemblies to access the capital market through the issuance of municipal bonds as contained in the proposed bill. Mr. George Kyei-Baffour, President of National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana, commended the Ministry for the initiative towards ensuring that the assemblies became financially capable.

He pledged the Association's support for the Ministry efforts at ensuring that the assemblies had access to other sources of financial and technical resources to accelerate national development and avoid over reliance on the Common Fund for projects.