The fourth quarter disbursement of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) is expected to be ready by end of March 2022, a Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare, has told Parliament.

“We have paid some of the DACF, last year we paid and we will continue to pay what is due. We have paid 2021 DACF Q1, Q2, the outstanding is 2021 Q4 which we expect to pay end of March,” she said.

Her comments follow the minority caucus’ complaint over delays in the payment of allocations from last year amid calls to haul the finance minister to parliament to brief the House on 2021 disbursements.

The minority have accused the Ministry of Finance of being heavily indebted to the DACF to tune of over GH¢2billion. In 2019, the amount owed was GH¢700m, per The Auditor General’s report. In 2020, the Ministry of Finance was owing to the DACF over GH¢587m.

Ahmed Ibrahim, the First Deputy Minority Whip who made this claim on the floor of the house said: “The whole of 2021, the GH¢2.4bn [we approved for DACF], you have not transferred a pesewa. Let us arrange to meet the Finance Minister so he comes to tell us how much was approved and how much disbursement was made.”

He also adds that by practice statutory funds comprising DACF, GETFUND, NHIL are brought before the house three months after the passage of the budget, however these statutory funds are yet to be programmed and urged the Majority Leader to hasten its process before the house adjourned.

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on his part stated it is important to ensure that the district assemblies live up to their bidding.

“The development of the district does not depend entirely on DACF and that is why we should ensure the collection of taxes, levies and duties to be used for development,” he proposed.

The 1992 constitution, under article 252 imposes an obligation on the Administrator of District Assemblies Common Fund to present to parliament a formula for the distribution of monies allocated by parliament for assemblies every year.

The fund is to be distributed among the assemblies on the basis of a formula proposed by the Administrator of the Fund and approved by parliament. The total allocation for the year is therefore based on five percent of projected national revenue.