‘Help your MMDAs to mobilise resources’ - PFM

Some MMDA executives at a workshop

Members of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Network, Ghana, have called on the public to help their respective Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to mobilise resources to support the Central Government’s budget for development.

The call was made in a Communiqué issued by members of the Network at the 2018 First Trimester Review Meeting held at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region.

The Communiqué, signed by Mr Charles Othniel Abbey, the Executive Secretary, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, urged the citizens to develop interest in the management and judicious utilization of resources of their respective assemblies, by demanding transparency and accountability.

It said the PFM-Network is available to cooperate and continue to collaborate with MMDAs to advance the developmental goals in their areas.

The Communiqué called on MMDAs and other government agencies and institution audit units to plug revenue leakages.

This, it said, could be done effectively if the MMDAs were well resourced and empowered.

It reiterated the Network’s call to grant prosecutorial powers to the Auditor General and called on Mr Martin Alamisi Amidu, the Special Prosecutor, to take interest in the prosecution of MMDAs who were cited in the 2016 Auditor General’s Report, and beyond, for financial mismanagement.

The Communiqué appealed to the Government to facilitate the decentralisation of the Public Accounts Committee to the District level to promote accountability.

It said the PFM-Network recognised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s Ghana beyond Aid project, and that state agencies, institutions and Ghanaians in general must ensure value for money at all levels of public life.

The PFM-Network, Ghana, is made up of 49 civil society organisations working in about 120 districts with 10 regional convenors across the country.

It was established in 2015 and officially registered in 2017 and exists to create awareness and deepen citizen’s knowledge in Public Financial Management.