Nii-Lante-Vanderpuye
The Minority in Parliament is kicking against a new formula announced for the disbursement of the District Assembly Common Fund.
The new formula allocates 40 per cent of the fund to the School Feeding Programme, 20 per cent each to the Nation Builders’ Corps (NaBCo), Planting for Food and Jobs and the remaining 20 per cent for the running of the assemblies.
Administrator of the District Assembly Common Fund, Irene Naa Torshie Addo is reported to have given the instruction to the assemblies to use the allocated funds for the purposes for which they have been given.
But former District Chief Executive (DCE) for Sekyere Afram Plains, Fuseini Donkor has pointed out that the directive is an illegality and would impede the development of several districts.
“If you look at the 2018 District Assembly Common Fund formula that was approved by Parliament, you will see no specific allocation to all the things Naa Torshie is actually doing is not approved by Parliament,” Mr Donkor noted.
By law, “the Common Fund shall consist of all monies allocated by Parliament under section 2 of this Act and any interests and dividends accruing from investments of monies from the Common Fund.”
However, critics, including the Minority have stated that the Common Fund Administrator has deviated from the formula approved by Parliament and rather channelled funds meant for development projects in the districts to executing campaign promises by the government.
The ranking member on the Local Government and Rural Development Committee, Nii Lante Vanderpuye warned that the directive would result in collapse of the Metropolitan Municipal District Assemblies (MMDCEs) and hinder the development of all districts across the country.
“Government must look for funding sources for its campaign promises rather than diverting the District Assembly Common Fund for the execution of the promises.
“We in the minority raised questions about it because we said the common fund is supposed to go to the districts for development, the government cannot turn round and depend on the same common fund it cut by 25 per cent and wants to use the same common fund to finance the initiatives in the district.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisation is threatening to embark on a demonstration if the government does not come clear on the fresh guidelines for the distribution of the common fund. –myjoyonline.com
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