The Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) with support from the Empowerment for Life (E4L) Program has organized a district assemble budget review forum for Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) and youth groups in Northern Region.
The forum is aimed at empowering the Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) and youth groups to effectively track district assemblies projects and keep them in check.
Speaking at the forum, a consultant at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Franklin Marvin, said over the years they have realized the citizenry most often do not know what has been put in the budget for their districts and how to track them.
He said base on this the GDCA saw the need to institute “the people’s assembly”, where information concerning development intervention in the budget is reviewed and simplify to the understanding of the citizenry at the local level.
So this is one of the series of activities they want to organize this year and at the regional level, where they are making the citizenry know what is in the budget.”
Dr Franklin clarified that the scope of the presentation was not to look at where these factories or projects are located but to look at what is in the budget and what the citizens can take home.
“It is very difficult to talk about the government delivery because we were not mandated to track what is happening in the various districts but our mandate was to present this information to the citizenry, what is in the budget, and then they would then track them,” he said.
According to him, the tracking of the implementation of the various development interventions in the various Districts is supposed to be done by the citizenry.
He was optimistic that the platform created would empower the citizenry to track the developmental projects that are going on at their local levels.
Some presiding members who were at the forum also shared the challenges regarding the implementation of some of their projects.
They lamented about the untimely nature of the district assemblies common fund and the gross linkages engulfed with the internal revenue mobilization system of the district assemblies.
“Savelugu produces maize, Mion also produces a lot of yams, people come to buy the yam, those who buy the yam, how many of them pass through the market for it to be taxed before it passes to Tamale or the Southern side?” A presiding member asked.
The presiding members called on the CSOs and the youth groups to take a holistic step in making sure they do not only engage in checking and tracking the assemblies projects but to similarly take steps to ensure people pay taxes.
“If our interest is just to go the assemblies and ask how they spend money, that is one side, we should also develop interest to see, how we can support to raise the money. If I support you to raise money, I will have the right to ask you how you spend it.”
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale