The Center for Democratic Development (CDD), has recommended to government the removal of some Metropolitan Assemblies from the list of recipients of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF).
According to CDD-Ghana, the likes of Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, must be taken off government subventions and made to depend on their internally generated resources.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, Head of Research at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Dr. Franklin Oduro, said “It doesn’t make sense to some of us that resource-endowed districts that can generate enough IGF [internally generated funds] like AMA, KMA, TMA, should receive the same kind of allocations as other districts that are not doing well.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”5AmKKCPzaVAEFPIx10Tq8W7pmcu7RAdW”]“We have consistently made recommendations in terms of devising new ways of resourcing districts that are not doing well. We have consistently argued for the need to take a second look at the district assembly common fund formula. One way that the ministry or all of us can begin to look at this is that, we take a second look at the formula so we can have targeted resource allocation to districts that are not really doing well. So that we can ensure that citizens living everywhere can have the same facility,” he added.
Dr. Oduro made the recommendation on the back of the ranking of the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) tabulated by CDD-Ghana in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, and UNICEF Ghana.
The CDD research head explained that, the District League Table is to ensure equity across the country.
“It is to find a way to measure whether the services that the government of Ghana including the local government institutions are mandated to provide, we are achieving that progress or not,” he added.
TMA tops 2017 District League Table, Krachi East last
The 2017 district league table, which was released on Thursday, saw TMA clinging to the topmost position with Krachi East district in the Volta Region languishing at the bottom.
The Tema Metropolitan Assembly overtook the La Nkwantanang-Madina Municipality which topped the 2016 UNICEF District League Table.
The Tema Metropolitan Assembly had previously topped the table in 2015.
MMDAs can survive without common fund
The Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, Felix Mensah Nii Anang-La, had in an earlier interview on the Citi Breakfast few weeks ago, stated that some of the MMDAs can survive without government support.
He noted that the funds they generate internally are even more than what they receive from government.
“In Tema, our IGF is always more than what we get from common fund. It has never been a case where common fund will be bigger than IGF. It is about four times what we receive from common fund,” he said.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin