By Iddi Yire
Accra, March 29, GNA – The District Assemblies Common Fund should be deposited directly into the account of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund Secretariat at the Bank of Ghana.
Mr Benjamin Komla Kpodo, Ranking Member, Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government and Rural Development and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Ho Central, has advocated.
“We are even suggesting from our Committee that we should establish an automatic mechanism by which when the revenue that must be going to the Common Fund hits the Bank of Ghana account, it should automatically be remitted to the Account of the Common Fund; as an exco account, so, that nobody has the discretion as to when to give money to the Assemblies’ Common Fund or not,” Mr Kpodo stated at a press conference in Accra.
“In fact, if that is done, then, it will not even be on a quarterly basis, it will be on a real time basis, just as the money hits the revenue accounts of the Bank of Ghana, the portion that goes to the District Assemblies Common Fund will translate into their bank account. They also have their bank account with the Bank of Ghana, just as the Consolidated Fund bank account is with the b
Bank of Ghana. So, there shouldn’t be any problem.”
What is happening now is like refusal of the Ministry of Finance to disburse the monies due to the Assemblies Common Fund on time and they are keeping the arrears, we cannot accept the fact that some money has lapsed at the end of the year. No! This is a constitutional provision and we must address it fully,” he added.
The press conference, which was organised by the NDC Minority Caucus took place after the Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund met the Committee of The Whole of Parliament to discuss the 2023 formula for the allocation of the five per cent of the total tax revenue of the country to the Common Fund as required by the 1992 Constitution.
The Deputy Ranking said what the NDC Minority was obsessed with was that the Ministry of Finance had consistently since 2018 failed to release actual amounts due to the District Assemblies Common Fund Secretariat for further disbursement to the Assemblies.
“Let me limit myself to only 2022, in Appropriation Account, the Appropriation Act, GHS3.4 billion was appropriated for the District Assemblies Common Fund, the Ministry of Finance went and released GHS2.9 billion on paper, that is from 1st January, 2022 to the end of December, 2022,” he said.
“That was the paper releases given to the Common Fund Secretariat, but out of that only GHS300 million cash has been given to the Common Fund Secretariat for the whole year, how do we expect them to function?”
He appealed to the Government to ensure that the Common Fund was released timeously to enable the Assemblies’ execute their projects on time.
“It is not only the Assemblies that are disbursed with these funds, there are so many things in the formula, which the Common Fund does, we have sanitation, we have judiciary; you, see all of those projects have been stalled,” Mr Kpodo said.
He noted that the assemblies were unable to continue with their projects because the monies had not been released to them.
He said all that the NDC Minority was clamouring for was that Ministry of Finance should release the monies to the Assemblies Common Fund as enshrined in the Constitution.
The District Assembly Common Fund was established by the District Assembly Common Fund Act 1993, (Act 455) under Article 242.
The District Assemblies’ Common Fund is a pool of resources created under section 252 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana.
The Common Fund is a minimum of five per cent of the national revenue set aside to be shared among all District Assemblies in Ghana with a formula approved by Parliament.
The purpose of setting this fund is to provide resources to support the developmental activities of the local government.
GNA