Accra, Mar. 18, GNA – Dr Eric Oduro Osae, a Public Financial Management and Local Government Expert, has urged Members of Parliament (MPs) to take interest in the Composite Budgets of their respective Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
He also encouraged MPs to always ensure that their projects were captured in the MMDAs’ Composite Budgets.
The Local Government Act 2016 (Act 936) defines Composite Budget as, “The budget for a district which shall include the aggregate revenue and expenditure of all departments and organization under the District Assembly and the District Coordinating Directorate, including the annual development plans and programmes of the departments and organization sunder the Assembly.”
Dr Osae said MMDAs’ Composite Budget was key in ensuring that funds followed functions to give meaning to their staff transfers that took place, adding that Composite Budget was an aggregation of projected revenue and expenditure of the departments and institutions of the MMDAs.
Dr Osae said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra in a reaction to the 2021 Budget and Economic Policy State of the Government.
He said Composite Budget established an effective integrated budgeting system which supports intended goals, expectation and performance of the Government.
He said it deepened the uniform means of planning, budgeting, financial reporting and auditing in a more comprehensive manner which covered every aspect and activities of the MMDAs.
He noted that Composite Budget facilitated and harmonized development as it introduced an element of fiscal prudence in the management of public funds at the MMDA.
He said it gathered the overall knowledge of the Assemblies financial resource envelope and increased transparency and accountability, and integrated the resources of the various departments, including the funding sources.
He said the composite budget form gave greater autonomy over financial resources, provided the basis for integrated MMDA budgets which focused on their needs and priorities and integrated the MMDA budgets into the national budgeting system.
Dr Osae, who is also the Director of the Internal Audit Agency of Ghana, said under the Composite Budget system, the multiplicity of transfer systems-reporting and auditing would cease.
He said it would also cease the unavailability of a comprehensive financial reports on the revenue and expenditure of the MMDAs.
He said in addition, the inability of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to automatically generate information on the operations of MMDAs for decision making was expected to cease under the Composite Budget system.
He appealed to the MMDAs to mainstream climate change activities into their programmes and budget for climate change activities using the Tracking Tools developed by MoF.
He again urged them to ensure compliance with the Programme-Based Budget (PBB) Manual, the Fee Fixing Guidelines and Internally Generated Fund (IGF) Strategy and Reference Guide as additional resources.
Dr Osae also advocated for compliance with ceilings provided for the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) and their Departments as well as Departments in MMDAs such as Agriculture, Feeder Roads, Urban Roads, Community Development and Social Welfare, and Works and Housing.
GNA