For decentralization to be truly effective and efficient, MMDAs have to generate more of their revenue internally and take control of their financial fortune.
The internally generated funds (IGFs) of Assemblies are inadequate to be used for developmental activities.
The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Amidu Chinnia Issahaku who made the observation was emphatic that recent reports suggest that the IGFs of most Municipal and District Assemblies are below 10% of the total funds they receive in a year from central government.
Mr. Issahaku made remark in Wa when he deputized for the Regional Minister, Sulemana Alhassan at the launch of a project known as “Deepening Transparency and Accountability in the Collection and Utilization of District Assembly IGF in the Upper West Region”. Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo in this piece says a four-member organisazation christened “Citizens’ Action Alliance” is executing the 21-month project with a budget line of 688 thousand 853 Ghana Cedis in six Districts in Upper West.
SAVE-Ghana is the lead implementing entity whilst Capacity Enhancement and Community Support (CAPES), Action for Sustainable Development (ASUDEV) and Commuinty Development Alliance (CDA-Ghana) are other implementing organizations.
The beneficiary districts are: Sissala West, Wa East, Nandom and Wa West as well as Sissala East and Wa Municipalities. The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Mr. Issahaku said: “The project is directly in line with the President’s vision of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’.” He stressed the necessity for Ghana Beyond Aid to be translated at all levels of our national life and charged District Assemblies to make it a reality by being proactive in mobilizing revenue locally for their major investment.
The Executive Director of SAVE-Ghana and Team Leader of Citizens’ Action Alliance, Dintie Tayiru Sule commented on the leakages of in the IGF collection chain.
“There are a lot of leaks with regards to the collection of this revenue from the revenue collectors to the area council to district assembly pool. We also identified that, citizens have low understanding of how the IGFs are being used at the district assembly level, giving them some sort of apathy in paying the taxes that they are suppose to pay”, Mr. Sule.
The Team Leader intoned that: “There is also the collection of unapproved fees and charges among unsuspecting citizenry, hence the need for intervention for us to “amass” all the revenue that are necessary for central government”.
A Software Engineer, Aliu Wahab Gbeila who made a presentation on the conceptual framework of an ICT platform for the project pointed out that the APP enhances transparency.
In the words of Mr. Gbeila, “For transparency, the general public can know that this amount was generated and 30% went into health. The community can also engage the district by getting the chance to comment on the expenditure made on the APP. This APP allows the community to input. They can even tell the district for example, that our priority is health and you are spending on education”.
The Software Developer will allow “a two-way communication between the District [Assembly] and the community members”.
The MCE for Wa, Issahaku Tahiru Moomin and his counterpart from Sissla East, Karim Nanyua as well as the DCE for Sissala West, Mohammed Zackaria Bakor were unanimous that they will support the efforts of revenue mobilization and management and entreated the project partners to work in tandem with the Assemblies for the identified to be challenges to be surmounted.
