All nine Districts in the Upper East Region are to benefit from a grant totalling GHc4,751,022.3 from the District Development Facility (DDF).
The assessment for the DDF is based on performance of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the administration of good governance.
The District Facility is different from the District Assemblies Common Fund and provides additional resources for district level development projects.
All the nine Districts in the Region passed what is termed "the Functional Organizational Assessment Tools" (FOAT) test conducted in 2009.
Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA), a civil society organization working to promote social justice and equity, commended the
Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo, for his visionary leadership, hard work, effective coordination and supervisory roles which
led to all the nine Districts in the Region qualifying for the FOAT test.
NORPRA made the commendation on Monday when they paid a courtesy call on the Regional Minister to express their happiness for having worked hard to ensure that all the nine Districts in the Region passed the test for 2009.
The Regional Secretary of NORPRA, Mr Javis Avoka, said it was only the Upper East Region which had the nine Districts fulfilling the Minimum Conditions of FOAT and having its performance score above 60 per cent for each district.
Mr. Avoka noted that it was by dint of hard work on the part of the Regional Minister, characterized by good quality leadership that greatly motivated the staff of the Economic Planning Unit and the Assemblies to come out with the spectacular performance.
Mr. Avoka called on other Regional Ministers, especially those in the Northern and Upper West Regions, to emulate what NORPRA termed as the
"Woyongo Way of doing things for the entire poverty stricken northern Ghana to fully benefit from this Fund that is made available by the Government and its development partners to address the resource gap of District Assemblies
for them to effectively implement their medium term development goals".
It also appealed to Government, particularly the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, to consider poverty levels in the
disbursement formula instead of the current criterion which only disburses the facility based on equality, population and land area of the Assembly.
Mr. Avoka said NORPRA had the interest to participate in the monitoring and utilization of the resources to ensure their judicious utilisation.