The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) and the Local Government and Decentralisation Programme has implemented a project in the Sefwi Wiawso Municipality and Bibiani Ahwiaso Bekwai District to strengthen citizens’ participation in local government.

The project, which is being funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), aims at strengthening civil society capacity to influence local government priorities and monitor the implementation of their annual action plans.

Mrs Linda Ofori-Kwafo, the Executive Secretary of GACC, said the project was to support advocacy efforts at the local and national levels to improve the timely disbursement of funds to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and the effective implementation of projects at the local level.

She said to achieve these objectives GACC in collaboration with local society organisations had formed a citizens’ group known as Local Accountability Networks (LANets) in the project areas.

She explained that LANets comprised leaders of existing groups, such as women and youth associations as well as people with disability groups, individuals and opinion leaders.

The Executive Secretary said the expected dates of completing developmental projects had exceeded by many years leading to legal battles between MMDAs and the contractors.

“Meanwhile citizens are denied the essential services that these projects are expected to offer them, impacting negatively on the quality of life in these areas,” she said.

Mrs Ofori-Kwafo said the project had revealed that the root cause of the stalled projects was lack of funding.

This, she explained, was because the two common sources of funding for MMDAs are the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) and the Internally Generated Funds.

She noted that although the former, set up by Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution provided that 7.5 per cent of the nation’s total revenue be paid into the Fund for distribution to the local level authorities, mainly to undertake development projects and some specific programmes.

“However, the late release of the funds over the years has affected the ability of MMDAs to complete projects on time and at the original estimated cost,” said.

The Executive Secretary said there were a number of challenges inhibiting the fund from achieving its intended purpose that needed to be addressed.

She suggested that the Government, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, and the Administrator of the DACF release the outstanding DACF allocations for the third and fourth quarters of 2014.

She also asked the MMDAs to take advantage of the street naming project to map out property and businesses to facilitate easy revenue collection.

She also urged MMDAs to sanction engineers who do not adequately verify the progress of work before raising payment certificates for contractors.