Gov't Stop Common Fund Of Orphan Districts

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has stopped the disbursement of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund (DACF) to assemblies without substantive chief executives.

This came to light at the general meeting of Ho Municipal Assembly on last Wednesday.

Presenting the assembly’s 2014 Composite Budget, Francis Sogbe, Municipal Finance Officer, told assembly members that the Ministry of Local Government had directed that the transfer of common fund allocation to ‘orphan’ assemblies be withheld until substantive chief executives are in place.

“First quarter has been released but the assembly’s share has not been transferred to us. The reason is that the Ministry of Local Government says all assemblies that do not have substantive chief executives will not receive their money until a substantive chief executive is appointed.”

Mr. Sogbe said this in response to a question posed by one of the assembly members as to whether the assembly had received its share of the 2013 DACF.

He however disclosed that the disability and MP’s allocations had been transferred to their various accounts.

The Ho Municipality is one of the five assemblies without chief executives in the Volta region.

The Assembly members in September rejected the President’s nominee, Fafa Adinyira.

The lack of Common Fund has adversely affected the execution of projects within the municipality.

Some assembly members have complained about delay in the execution of developmental projects in their communities, which were captured in the 2013 Budget.