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Ken Ofori Atta - Finance Minister
Ken Ofori Atta - Finance Minister

Advocacy group wants 2017 Budget reviewed

The Centre for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA) has called on Parliament to review its decision on the 2017 Budget  and ensure that the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) allocation hits the mandated five per cent.

Article 252 (2) of the 1992 Constitution says: “Subject to the provisions of the Constitution, parliament shall annually make provision for the allocation of not less than five per cent of the total revenue of Ghana to the district assemblies for development; and the amount shall be paid into the DACF in quarterly instalments.” 

Allocation to DACF

The centre, however, said in spite of the provision, the allocation of funds to the DACF was below the constitutionally mandated five per cent as contained in the 2017 Budget.

A statement signed by the acting Executive Director of CLGA, Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso, noted that the allocation of GH¢1,575,935,339 to the assemblies in the 2017 Budget was 4.58 per cent of the  total revenue defined by section 126 (2) of Act 936.

Act 136 stipulates that the total revenues of the country include the revenue collected by or accruing to the central government other than foreign loans and grants, non-tax revenue, petroleum revenue paid into the Petroleum Holding Fund under section three of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011 (Act 815) and revenues already collected by or for the district assemblies under any enactment.

The statement said: “The Centre is, therefore, entreating Parliament to quickly review the 2017 Budget to rectify the anomaly and possibly avert any legal tussle.”

Legal tussle 

It said the centre had noted with concern that the allocations to the DACF since 2013 had not met the revised 7.5 per cent.

“Actual transfers to the DACF were 6.7 per cent, 5.9 per cent, 6.2 per cent and 6.9 per cent in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.”

Development framework

“Government is entreated to push more funds to the MMDAs, which constitute the heart of Ghana’s development framework,” the statement noted.

In a related development, CLGA called on the government to clarify how the “one constituency, $1million” would be operationalised.

The centre urged the government to come out with the entity that would administer those funds.

It proposed that the government channels the $1 million, one constituency fund through the DACF to the district assemblies.

According to the centre, that would ensure effective coordination and harmonisation of the resources that went to the local level for development.

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