Citizens participation in budget process of MMDAs appalling-SEND Ghana reveals

 

Mr Eugene Yirbour, SEND Ghana Rep.

 A participant expressing his view

Narration: A Lead Researcher at SEND Ghana, Eugene Yirbour has described as appalling the level of citizens participation in the budget process of the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies MMDAs. He said though participation in decisions related to public budget was a fundamental right of the citizenry, access to budget information and other related document is low as most officials in the various assemblies have confirmed that even majority of assembly members have little knowledge of assembly’s budget and are unable to understand the basic of budgeting and explain anything in the budget to their community members. This notwithstanding has contributed significantly to the poor participation of citizens in the budget process. Mr  Yirbour made these revelations at an interface meeting held at Bolgatanga involving relevant stakeholders in the region. Here is a report by correspondent Isaac Asare.

 

 

 

 Report

 

The overall goal of the engagement was to deliberate on the way forward in ensuring effective management of the District assemblies Common Fund (DACF). It was also to share SEND Ghana’s survey on the level of MMDAs compliance with the DACF guidelines and to examine the degree of transparency and accountability in the application of procedures and processes for the disbursement and utilisation of the DACF. He disclosed that a research finding conducted in the various MMDAs of Northern Ghana suggest that most assemblies do not have audit units where they could access internal budget reports. Based on the report, 95 percent of respondents denied having any practical knowledge of budget process, an indication that the assemblies were not living up to expectation, although MMDAs are required to play a leading role in disseminating information on budget to their staff and communities. The lack of knowledge on the assembly’s budget process, he noted has resulted in the loss of revenue for the assemblies and blamed it on apathy and laxity on the part of both the MMDAs and the citizenry. Moreover the absence of effective audit reports implementation committees and internal audit units at the assembly level was greatly affecting the management of the assemblies to implement audit recommendations. This he recommended calls for concerted effort by key stakeholders including the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development MLGRD to address the issue. Touching on the unlawful deductions made from the DACF by the MLGRD, Mr Yirbour said `for the purposes of transparency, it was prudent for the common fund secretariat to ensure that all stakeholders are officially furnished informed and agreed on deductions and how they should be utilised. Per the report some of the deductions are huge and are executed without issuance of receipt which it said contribute is thwarting the financial strength of the MMDAs to address the developmental challenges of the respective assemblies. He further underscored the need to minimize the level of the said deduction to assist in the development planning of the MMDAs.

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