Delays in release of Common Fund impede service delivery
Delays in the release of the District Assemblies' Common Fund (DACF) are impeding public service delivery in the Prestea Huni-Valley, Tarkwa Nsuaem and Shama districts of the Western Region.
Advertisement
Additionally, government contracts are sometimes awarded without the involvement of the assemblies resulting in the inability of the local people, who are direct beneficiaries, to monitor the project's successful completion.
These were two critical issues of concern the people of the three districts raised at a workshop organised by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) and its partners to strengthen civic participation and social accountability in local governance in the districts.
The partners were the Ghana Local Governance and Decentralisation Programme (LOGODEP), the Organisation for Livelihood Enhancement Services (OLIVES) and the Network for Community Planning (NECPAD).
The project, which will last for a year, is sponsored by USAID.
The challenge
At the sensitisation workshop dubbed: "Strengthening civic participation and social accountability in local governance," a project officer of IDEG, Mr Ewald Quaye Garr, asked the government to expedite the release of the DACF because although the country was in the last quarter of the fiscal year, allocations for even the first quarter had not been released.
He said the project initiated by IDEG and its partners to solve some weaknesses in Ghana's decentralisation effort also found as a weakness the lack of civil society participation in the formulation, participation, monitoring and evaluation of economic and social programmes at the local level.
The weakness contravened Article 34 Section 5(d) of the 1992 Constitution, which required the state to "make democracy a reality by decentralising the administrative and financial machinery of the government to the regions and districts."
Other Trending Stories
Mr Garr said the lack of civil society participation at the local level was also against the Local Government Act of 1993 and the National Development Planning Act of 1994.
He said studies by IDEG showed that the gap in the full participation of citizens in local government processes was the result of civil society groups at the local level paying less attention to mobilising citizens to participate in public policy, as well as their limited capacity in research and advocacy skills, policy and networking.
Thus, IDEG and its partners sought to redress these gaps to enhance the ability of civil society organisations to work with their district authorities to enhance standards of living.
Fieldwork
Giving an overview of the project since it started in June 2014, Mr Garr said they were working with local civil society organisations, assembly members, youth, women and other groups.
They reported back to the assembly and disseminated the information on local FM stations.
Through that, a platform was created for the assembly and citizens to dialogue on local development issues.