The Parliamentary Select Committee on local government and rural development wants the Births and Deaths Registry to retain 50% of their internally generated funds.
The committee is certain that such a move will inure to the benefit of the Registry which is in dire need of financial support.
The Births and Deaths Registry currently lacks basic infrastructure as well as computerized systems nationwide to work with, a situation many have decried.
[contextly_sidebar id=”olxsGAd0rAmqrxx72fz1TjoGjdttNWPf”]Established by the Act 301 of 1965, within the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the Registry is mandated to handle and develop the births and deaths registration system in Ghana.
Its core mandate is to provide accurate and reliable information on all births and deaths occurring within Ghana for socio-economic development of the country through their registration and certification.
In 2014 alone, the Birth and Death Registry internally generated about GHC 4 million.
On the back of this, the chairman of the committee on local government and rural development in Parliament, Dominic Azumah says the Registry will be transformed if it keeps at least 50 percent of the monies it generates internally.
He admonished the Finance Ministry to “seriously consider the possibility of allowing the Births and Deaths Registry to retain part of the IGF [internally generated funds] so that they can plan their programmes with that kind of amount.”
He said if the Finance Ministry sanctions the move, “I am sure they would have been able to construct a new office, bought all the necessary equipment for their work, buy vehicles and motorbikes for their staff on the field to run around to register people.”
Mr. Azumah pointed out that as long as the Registry is left under the consolidated fund “and as and when the Finance Ministry releases funds to them, when there are challenges at the Finance Ministry, they don’t think about Births and Deaths Registry again.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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