General News of Tuesday, 29 May 2018
Source: citinewsroom.com
2018-05-29
Benjamin Kpodo, Deputy Minority Spokesperson on Local Government
The Minority in Parliament wants the government to withdraw its directive on the use of District Assemblies Common Fund to finance government flagship programmes like the Nation Builders Corps.
The Minority maintains that such allocations are illegal.
According to the Minority, the said directive compels assemblies to spend 80 percent of their common Fund on School Feeding, Nation Builders Corps and Planting for Food and Jobs.
Addressing the Media in Parliament on Tuesday, the Deputy Minority Spokesperson on Local Government, Benjamin Kpodo, said the directive, if not withdrawn, will cause the collapse some Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
The 2018 allocation to the DACF was GHc1.8 billion. Of this amount, 19 line items were approved for disbursement.
The direct allocations to MMDAs amounted to GHc905,999, thus the Minority said it expected the 254 MMDAs to receive an average hovering around GHc3,566,929.
However, Mr. Kpodo said the Minority had information that “a directive has gone out to the MMDAs that the direct transfer allocated to and approved for the MMDAs should be strictly applied as”: GHS362,399,992.80 for the School Feeding programme, GHS181,199,996 for the Nation Builders Corps, GHS181,199,996 for Planting for Food and Jobs and then GHS181,199,996 for the MMDAs.
But this allocation has been deemed illegal and “extremely restrictive,” by the Minority.
The Association of Former Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives under the Mahama administration made similar allegations.
“The above directive was not contained in the approved formula for disbursement of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) for 2018; that means it does not meet the legal requirements for the application of the DACF. Indeed it is being done on the blind side of Parliament.”
“We view this illegal directive as one of the indications of the Government’s inability to fund its numerous promises to the people of Ghana. It is an act of desperation to fulfil promises, the funding of which was not well thought out,” the Minority said.
They thus said Government should “immediately withdraw the said restrictive directive to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies regarding the use of the approved direct transfers to the Assemblies.”
The Minority advised that the Government should “find other means of funding its flagship programmes and projects as directed by Parliament on March 22, 2018.”