According to the Minority in Parliament, the government owes the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) nearly GH2 billion.
They explained that the sum is made up of disbursements that should have been paid into the DACF from 2019 to 2021.
On Thursday, October 21, 2021, Member of Parliament for Ho Central, Benjamin Kpodo, spoke to the press about the matter, saying that the delay in providing funds to the DACF is negatively impacting the functioning of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) around the country.
“The Ministry of Finance is very heavily indebted to the DACF. The amount has run to over GH¢2 billion. In 2019, the amount owed was GH¢700 million, per the Auditor General’s report. In 2020, the Ministry of Finance was owing to the DACF over GH¢587 million. In 2021, where nothing has been paid, the estimates for the first and second quarters only, based on their [government’s] own figures, the amount they are owing is GH¢884 million. When you add this, it is indeed over GH¢2.1 billion, which the Ministry of Finance is owing to the DACF.”
Article 252 of the 1992 constitution requires the Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund to provide a formula to Parliament every year for the distribution of cash granted by Parliament to the Assemblies.
The government is required by this law to set aside 5% of the country’s overall revenues for the development of MMDAs. The required sum will be deposited into a fund set aside for district assemblies. The Fund is subsequently divided among the Assemblies according to a formula devised by the Fund’s Administrator and approved by Parliament.
Mr. Kpodo, who is also the Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Local Government and Rural Development Committee, expressed dissatisfaction with the Akufo-Addo administration’s failure to deliver funds to the DACF this year.
“For the whole of 2021, not even a pesewa has been paid to the DACF,” he complained. “If the government does not heed our calls, we are serving notice, that we will head to court again,” the MP said.
The Honourable MP continued “We are calling on the government to change its way of determining when the money is due. Within a maximum of one month after the end of each quarter and accordingly, release same to the DACF,”
“There is no reason why the GRA cannot calculate the total revenue collected in any quarter within one month,” Mr. Kpodo contended.
