Ghana assemblies to receive second-quarter DACF funds this week

Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) that have fulfilled their reporting obligations will receive their second-quarter District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) allocations this week, the Fund’s administrator has said.

Most assemblies have met the conditions required for payment, but four will not receive their transfers until they submit the outstanding financial returns.

Michael Harry Yamson, Administrator of the DACF, made the announcement at the National Dialogue on Decentralisation and Responsive Governance in Accra on Tuesday.

He said the allocations for compliant assemblies were ready to be transferred, while funds for those still in breach of the requirements would remain at the Central Bank until the necessary documentation was submitted.

“Everybody else will get their money between Friday and the following Friday, and those who don’t comply, just wait. Your money is at the Central Bank and whenever you comply, you’ll get it,” he said.

The DACF has tightened its compliance procedures and now requires assemblies to submit their financial returns through the Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) before payments are authorised.

Mr Yamson said the system was designed to improve financial accountability by ensuring that public money was released only to assemblies that had satisfied the required reporting standards.

He said the first-quarter transfer process had shown that some assemblies delayed submitting their returns while still expecting to receive their allocations.

However, the DACF had continued to insist that compliance had to come before payment.

Mr Yamson also called on assemblies to increase their internally generated funds (IGF), warning that heavy reliance on DACF transfers could weaken the sustainability of local development.

He said local authorities could raise more revenue through property rates, market levies and other charges associated with economic activity within their jurisdictions.

“It’s a question of looking at your own economic base rigorously and making some tough choices about making sure that the assembly earns its fair share of these economic flows,” he said.

The administrator said efforts to improve local revenue mobilisation formed part of wider proposals to reshape Ghana’s decentralisation system and reduce the dependence of assemblies on transfers from central government.

The DACF is also considering incentives for assemblies that increase their own revenue and demonstrate stronger efforts to expand their local economic base.

As part of its transparency reforms, the Fund is developing digital systems including the Intellects platform, which combines financial and operational information from assemblies.

Mr Yamson said the platform allowed the DACF to monitor financial returns, bank reconciliations and development projects, with details of projects recorded down to electoral-area level.

“We’ve built a system that is live, that is transparent and that is accurate. Accurate to electoral area.

“Not only that, we will not just see it by district. We will see it by electoral area, so we have a better understanding of where development went. And it’s live, and now, when an assembly is even one month in arrears on submitting their returns, we don’t pay them. We hold the transfer until they are in full compliance,” he said.

He said the reforms were intended to make accountability a permanent feature of local government and ensure that public resources produced sustainable development outcomes.

The DACF has also launched the Community Partners Fund to attract additional support from citizens, members of the diaspora, corporate bodies and international organisations.

Mr Yamson said the initiative would supplement government transfers and help establish stronger connections between assemblies and private-sector financing for development projects.

Its wider aim, he said, was to move Ghana’s decentralisation system away from dependence on grants and towards greater fiscal, administrative and political autonomy for local governments.

He urged Parliament, government institutions, development partners, assemblies and citizens to work together to ensure that decentralisation delivered meaningful development at local level.

The two-day dialogue was held under the theme: “Resetting Democratic Decentralisation for Accountable Public Service Delivery and Accelerated Local Development.”

It brought together regional ministers, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), traditional leaders, local government specialists, development partners, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.

Accra, 11 August. (GNA)
By Benjamin Adamafio Commey
Edited by Kenneth Sackey