The Centre for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA) is asking government to as a matter of urgency release the 2014 second and third quarter of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF).
According to the local governance advocacy group, the delay in releasing the monies for the previous year has the “potential of creating developmental challenges” within the MMDAs.
[contextly_sidebar id=”n2UiQBJYeJ4VlBrQHbUB2iVpw69hNeNg”]Government recently released the statutory fund for the first quarter of 2015 to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) while the second and third quarter of 2014 are in arrears.
Some stakeholders have complained about the effects of the delay in releasing the arrears saying it has stalled development projects in the MMDAs.
A statement signed by Acting Director of NGO, Vladmir Antwi Danso, questioned the rationale behind the delay in releasing the funds.
While commending government for releasing that of 2015, the group demanded that of 2014 should be paid as soon as possible.
“Since the last two quarters of 2014 DACF has not been paid but 1st quarter of 2015 has been paid, when will this 2014 arrears be paid to MMDAs ?”
The group further took a dig on the administrator of the common fund asking, “on issues of accountability and transparency how does the Administrator of the DACF expect the MMDAs to account for the 1st quarter 2015 release ie. Whether to use it to pay for 2014 debt and account for it as such or abandon 2014 projects and start new projects with the 2015 release?”
“The CLGA calls on government and the Administrator of the Fund in the interest of true accountability and transparency to come out and explain to Ghanaians why there is overlap in the payment of DACF between 2014 and 2015 and indicate a payment plan to enable the MMDAs explain themselves to contractors and citizens.”
“The CLGA is not happy about how the administrator and government is managing the release of the DACF. If such practices continue it is likely to compel the MMDAs to use the DACF in a manner not prescribed by law and also incur extra cost on projects and contracts.”
“The CLGA calls on government and the Administrator of the Fund in the interest of true accountability and transparency to come out and explain to Ghanaians why there is overlap in the payment of DACF between 2014 and 2015 and indicate a payment plan to enable the MMDAs explain themselves to contractors and citizens.”
The CLGA also urged government and the Administrator of the Fund “to especially explain to Ghanaians why the last two quarters of 2014 was skipped but 1st quarter of 2015 has been released.”
CLGA further advised that in order to get the financial management systems of the MMDAs back on track, government should pay the last two quarters of 2014 which is in arrears and the 2nd quarter of 2015 by 1st July 2015.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin