SEND-GHANA calls for timely release of District Assembly Common Fund to MMDAs

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

SEND-GHANA, a national non-governmental organisation exclusively devoted to policy advocacy, has called for the timely release of the District Assembly Common Fund to all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the country.

According to SEND-Ghana, the delay in the release of the funds by the Fund’s Secretariat to MMDA’s affects their ability to disburse the 3% of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) for Persons with Disability (PWDs).

It said any delays in the release of the 3% share for the PWDs impacts negatively on their welfare and will not improve their condition as is intended by the fund. 

In various district stakeholder meetings carried out across Ghana, it emerged that even though, some districts have established the Disability Fund Management Committees (DFMCs) and opened the Disability Fund Accounts (DFA), as directed, there are only occasional transfers into those accounts.

The Assemblies say in 2009 for instance, they received only two tranches instead of four quarterly transfers of the funds, just as in 2010 and 2011.

SEND-GHANA earlier in the year issued a report card on the District Assemblies Common Fund, titled ‘making decentralization work for the poor’ which sought to draw attention to the realisation that proper implementation of decentralisation, especially fiscal decentralisation, is critical to reducing poverty, particularly among the rural poor in Ghana.

The report indicated that to a large extent, the Assemblies were not adhering to guidelines provided for the utilisation of the fund, especially in respect of the 3% share for persons with disability.

The district interface meetings are conducted to urge the MMDAs to take action on the findings of the report, while the assemblies are required to open a District Disability Fund Account (DDFA), into which the 3% PWDs share of the fund will be transferred, and the Disability Fund Management team formed.

SEND-Ghana Friday December 9, 2011, held yet another regional interface meeting at STEPRI-CSRI, near Alliance Francaise for the Greater Accra Region, to discuss  the emerging issues from the District Interface meetings held in the region.