This was contained in a report of the Committee on the annual report of the District Assemblies Common Fund for 2014.
“The Common Fund is loaded with so many social intervention programmes by the central government, such as the Gyeeda Sanitation Model and the National School Feeding programme,” noted Dominic Azumah, chairman of the Committee.
While approving GHS‘Social interventions hurting Common Fund’399,537 for services of the Office of District Assemblies’ Common Fund Administrator for the year ending December 2016, members also urged the Local Government Ministry to consider relieving the Fund of extra burdens if the intended objective for establishing the Fund is to be met.
“The overwhelming demand for the national resource envelope is the need to wean some subvented institutions off the national budget,” Prof. Gyan Baffour said.
According to Prof. Gyan Baffour, the Office of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund Administrator is in a position where it can be independent of government subvention if its revenue for running the office is taken from the Common Fund.
Majority Leader Alban Bagbin explained that the amount approved for the administrator will enable the office to disburse and manage district assembly funds through the use of information technology. “We believe the amount is sufficient to keep the office and lubricate it to perform its functions effectively during the 2016 elections.”
On the disbursement of funds, he said: “The fund will definitely come in a formula for approval by the House”.
There were also concerns raised about the amount of monies being spent on sanitation in various forms and models from the Fund.
“The situation not only denies Assemblies the funds needed to tackle sanitation challenges based on respective local needs, but also the disconnected and uncoordinated nature of the various approaches does not augur well for comprehensive and systematic resolution of the sanitation problems in the country,” the report noted.
The Common Fund is a development Fund intended to ensure equitable development of the various Assemblies in the country.
For 2014, the Committee realised that only the first quarter and part of the second quarter allocations were released to the Fund by the Ministry of Finance in 2014.
Common Fund releases have delayed in the past and the Committee has urged the Finance Ministry to deepen the citizenry’s confidence in the local government system by ensuring timely releases of accrued revenue into the Fund for further disbursement. – B&FT
