By Ramatu Yakubu, GNA
Tamale, July 14, GNA – Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), a non-government organisation (NGO), has called on the government to increase the constitutional minimum allocation to the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) from the current five per cent to not less than 10%.
The GDCA argued that this would increase funding for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to undertake development projects at the local level for the benefit of the people.
The organization also urged the government to stop the central-government level deductions from funds transferred to MMDAs as part of the DACF.
This was contained in a statement issued by the GDCA, signed by Mr Philip Gmabi, its Executive Director, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Tamale.
The statement followed Cabinet’s approval of a new National Decentralization Policy and Strategic Framework (2026 – 2030), which proposed reforms to strengthen local governance and deepen citizen participation.
The proposed reforms were aimed at transitioning the country towards the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) on a non-partisan basis, reviewing the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), strengthening accountability systems at the local level and increasing the constitutional minimum allocation to the DACF from 5% to 7.5%.
The statement commended the government for approving the proposed increase in the DACF threshold to 7.5% but said increasing it to not less than 10% would be ideal given the development needs at the local level.
It emphasised that, “With all MMDAs relying on the DACF to provide critical infrastructure and services including roads, schools, health facilities, sanitation and local economic development, GDCA maintains that the 10% threshold recommended by the Constitutional Review Committee remains the more appropriate response to Ghana’s current development realities.”
It said: “International benchmarks for effective fiscal decentralization suggest that local governments should manage between 20% and 25% of public expenditure. Ghana’s current effective rate remains significantly below this benchmark.”
It added, that, the “GDCA, therefore, maintains that progressively increasing DACF allocations to a minimum of 10% would substantially strengthen assemblies’ capacity to plan effectively, implement Medium-Term Development Plans and respond to local priorities, especially in underserved rural and peri-urban communities with limited internally- generated funds.”
The statement also expressed concern about the continued practice of central government’s spending or pre-committing DACF resources on behalf of MMDAs before funds were transferred to the assemblies.
It said: “In 2020, assemblies reportedly received only 50.4% of DACF resources for discretionary use, with the remainder absorbed through deductions and institutional transfers.”
It called for explicit prohibition of any central government spending or contractual pre-commitment of DACF allocations through constitutional amendment.
The statement welcomed the proposal to elect MMDCEs directly by citizens as a major democratic milestone but emphasized that political decentralization must be matched with meaningful fiscal decentralization to ensure that elected local leaders were equipped with adequate resources to deliver on citizens’ expectations.
GNA
Edited by Eric K Amoh/Benjamin Mensah