The participants at the function
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in the Greater Accra Region have met to discuss the 2017 Regional Budget.
Addressing participants at the opening session held at the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Hall on Tuesday in Accra, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Ishmael Ashitey, indicated that the new format seeks to promote financial discipline in the MMDAs.
He said that the new format is borne out of the need to speed up the pace of fiscal decentralization reforms as part of the wider public Financial Management (PFM) reforms.
While acknowledging that the Composite Budget system has not been without challenges, he stated that these are however as a result of developments on both the global and domestic front which have not helped in the generation of revenue.
He reiterated that government was aggressively pursuing a number of measures to ensure the achievement of the nation’s fiscal objectives in addition to the medium term fiscal policy objectives of consolidation and addressing short-term vulnerabilities.
“Government is also focused on reducing fiscal deficit and eventually improving the fiscal space to finance development in accordance with Section 33 of the Public Financial Management Act 2016, Act 921,” he said.
According to him, the process has moved from the use of activity based budgeting format to Programme Based Budgeting (PBB) in the preparation of MMDAs budget, which are now aligned to the National Budget preparation and presentation formats.
“Specifically therefore the PBB seeks among other benefits to ensure linkage between public spending and determined results, including improved efficiency in the allocation and utilization of resources,” he stated.
He further stated that the roll out of the PBB format in respect of MMDAs, which began in 2017, is consistent with the objectives of the PFM reform programme.
Mr. Ashitey further stated that earlier interventions such as the Regional Integrated Budget Systems (RIBS) were introduced last year at the regional level to help harmonize the existing budgetary allocations and transfers to the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs).
By Solomon Ofori