By Edward Dankwah, GNA
Accra, June 11, GNA – Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, has called on Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to improve their utilisation of decentralisation funds.
He said the government was committed to empowering local authorities to drive development at the grassroots level.
The Minister made the call during a monitoring and evaluation exercise to assess the performance of MMDAs following the disbursement of significant financial resources under the government’s decentralisation agenda.
The exercise sought to verify whether assemblies were effectively utilising funds allocated to them and complying with government guidelines.
Selected Assemblies visited included the Ayawaso West, Ayawaso North, Ayawaso Central and the Ayawaso East Municipal Assemblies, with plans to extend the exercise to the other Assemblies.
Mr Ibrahim said the assessment was prompted by long-standing concerns over whether local government officials, including Municipal Finance Officers, Coordinating Directors and Municipal Engineers, possessed the capacity to manage large sums of public funds.
He noted that President John Dramani Mahama challenged this perception by ensuring that every assembly received not less than the equivalent of USD2 million in 2025 to implement development projects.
Mr Ibrahim disclosed that the monitoring exercise revealed varying levels of fund utilisation across the country, such that while some assemblies had utilised as much as 68 per cent of their allocations, others recorded expenditure rates between 30 and 40 per cent, with a few performing as low as 3.9 per cent.
“The Government disbursed substantial resources to the assemblies throughout 2025, including GH¢987 million in the first quarter, GH¢1.46 billion in the second quarter, GH¢ 1.8 billion in the third quarter and GH¢1.9 billion in the fourth quarter,” he added.
He noted that actual allocations to individual assemblies ranged from GH¢13 million to GH¢35 million, depending on population size and other factors.
He said the government deliberately refrained from directing how the funds should be spent, choosing instead to provide assemblies with the autonomy to implement projects based on local priorities.
This approach, he explained, was intended to test the ability of local authorities to independently manage development resources.
Mr Ibrahim stressed that the monitoring exercise had confirmed that the government fulfilled its commitment to release the funds and was now focused on ensuring accountability and effective utilisation.
He said underperforming assemblies would be required to improve their performance, warning that all officials involved in local governance, including finance officers, budget officers and social welfare officers, would be held accountable for their responsibilities.
The Minister observed that procedural delays and bureaucratic bottlenecks were slowing project implementation in some assemblies, particularly in areas such as market development and youth-focused initiatives.
He urged local authorities to move beyond excessive administrative processes and focus on delivering projects that directly benefit communities.
Mr Ibrahim highlighted the Ministry’s adoption of a digital monitoring system through which all 261 assemblies report fund receipts and project implementation progress, adding that the system enabled the ministry to track performance in real time.
He assured that a comprehensive report on the findings of the nationwide monitoring exercise would be submitted to President Mahama to inform future decisions on local governance and decentralisation.
Mr Ibrahim reiterated government’s confidence in the capacity of local authorities and maintained that the objective of the exercise was not to recentralise resources but to strengthen accountability and ensure that development funds translate into visible improvements in the lives of citizens.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei