District Assemblies must create platform to engage citizens

A study by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) says district assemblies (DAs) need to create platforms to engage citizens in their planning process to enhance transparency and accountability.

According to the study which was conducted in the Sefwi Wiawso and Bibiani-Anhwiawso-Bekwai districts of the Western Region, there was lack of adequate assemblies’ engagement with communities in planning and implementing projects.

It said the delay of government in release of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) was hampering project implementation at the local level and its contractual effects on the assemblies.

Sandra Arthur, GACC Programme Officer, presenting the report on Monday at a national stakeholders meeting in Accra, said there was low generation of internally generated fund in both districts, citing Sefwi Wiaso which budgeted GH? 903,000.00 as IGF for 2014, but as of October 31 had mobilized GH? 406, 000.00.

The project, on the theme: “Enhancing the Capacity of Civil Society Organisations to Effectively Engage the DAs to Ensure Transparency and Accountability,” is being implemented by GACC in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development and the Local Governance Decentralization Programme (LOGODEP).

LOGODEP is a collaborative programme between Management Systems International, an international development company based in Washington, D.C. and SNV, a Dutch development organisation.

The workshop was attended by stakeholders from anti-corruption CSOs and state institutions and the media fraternity.

The findings indicated that DAs were over-dependent on funds from central government of which some deductions were being made directly at the Office of the Administrator of DACF.

It said there were fluctuations in the amounts disbursed from the DACF and the times the amounts were disbursed; according to it, the Second Quarter 2014 DACF was released in February 2015, while the third and fourth quarters were yet to be released.

The study said DAs did not regularly hold community meetings except for FOAT Assessment, adding that the Finance and Administration sub-committees in the two districts under study had little knowledge on the amount allocated to the districts under the DACF and District Development Facility.

It said limited education by assemblies for their constituents hampered the smooth effective mobilisation of the IGF.

It observed that Area Councils were not functioning properly in both districts.

The study therefore, recommended support for the Area Councils to effectively work in communities in the districts.

It called for capacity building of assembly members to enhance their performance; it also recommended that assemblies should adequately provide feedback to citizens on funds utilisation at the assembly.

Mr Kwasi Larnyoh, Lecturer, Institute of Local Government Studies, said due to the substantial amount of IGF that Accra and Kumasi Metropolises were capable of collecting; they should be in a position to wane themselves from the DACF.

Dr Ferdinand Ahiakpor of the National Development Planning Commission urged the Government and all stakeholders in the educational sector to incorporate the study of corruption at all levels of education to help intensify long term fight against corruption.

GACC is a cross-sectional grouping of public, private and CSOs with the sole aim of building a national effort to confront the problem of corruption and devise effective control measures.