DACF Administrator deplores poor service conditions of staff

Ho, Dec. 15, GNA - Mr Joshua Magnus Nicol, Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), at the weekend said that poor conditions of service had over the years rendered the Fund incapable of retaining its staff.
Mr Nicol who was speaking on the challenges facing the DACF at a workshop in Ho, to solicit input into a new and more equitable sharing formula to be presented to Parliament soon, also said the Fund had only two 10-year old Toyota Land Cruisers.
He suggested that 0.5 per cent of the Fund be retained by the DACF outfit to boost its performance, observing that it was not "fair to over burden budget with DACF expenses."
"The DACF is doing all it can to make the Fund realise its objectives. But this effort would be in vain if it is not adequately resourced," Mr Nicol stated.
The workshop, the first in a series, was jointly organised by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government and Rural Development and the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) with sponsorship from Action Aid, Ghana.
Select Committee members, District Chief Executives (DCEs), District Co-ordinating Directors (DCDs), District Finance Officers (DFOs) and District Budget Officers among others attended the workshop. Mr Nicol explained that an effort to improve on the distribution formula was a continuing one, which roped in new factors as and when they were identified.
He said the "guiding principles in choosing the factors and the corresponding indicators is that they are relevant, comprehensive, reliable, measurable and simple to interpret."
Mr Nicol said since 1994 when the fund was established up to November 30, 2003, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning had lodged 1,580.226 billion cedis in the Common Fund account.
He said the highest yearly lodgement of 403.811 billion cedis was in 2003 whilst the lowest was 38.490 billion cedis in 1994.
The DACF Administrator said his outfit was in the process of instituting performance assessment to give it "an independent scientific assessment of the impact of the fund."
He said, however, "For now I can only say that reports I have received from my officers who went on monitoring to the regions indicate that the Fund is really helping the people."