The President of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), Mr Theophilus Aidoo-Mensah, has called on government to restore ceded revenue to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to enable them to get enough funds for development projects.
He said the withdrawal of ceded revenue in 2005 had affected the development agenda of the Assemblies.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Apam at the weekend on his return from a study tour of Germany and Holland, Mr Aidoo-Mensah said the Local Government Act, Act 462 provided sources of revenue to be collected on behalf of the District
Assemblies.
He said this revenue known as Ceded Revenue supported by the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), enabled the Assemblies to execute their development agenda.
The NALAG President said it was a fact that the District Assemblies had the onerous duty to provide facilities to support the government in meeting the targets of the Millennium Development
Goals which had only four years to end.
"The Assemblies would not be able to perform creditably without funds," he said, and added that the DACF which had been the main source of revenue was over-stretched by deductions at
source.
He said before the Common Fund got to the Assemblies, over 50 per cent had been taken away by the authorities to defray debts owed by the Assemblies.
Mr Aidoo-Mensah said for the Assemblies to discharge their constitutional mandate efficiently, the government must not only restore the ceded revenue but must also increase the District Assemblies Common Fund from the current seven point five per cent to 20 per cent.
He said in Holland, government paid the ceded revenue which they called "Earmark Fund" in addition to other Funds to the Assemblies which had made them financially sound to support their
development programmes.
Mr Aidoo-Mensah further appealed to the government to pay end-of-term reward or ex-gratia to Assembly members charged on the Consolidated Fund.
He said assembly members must be given some remuneration to motivate them to work efficiently to promote the decentralization policy.
The NALAG President expressed dismay at the low publicity of the District Level Elections scheduled for later this year.
"Preparations towards the elections are not brisk and catching pace with the zeal to ensure participation by the citizenry," he said, and added that if publicity was not intensified the nation may not get the 36 per cent participation recorded in the last elections.