Henry Quartey and the MCE of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly during the
programme last Monday.
THE GREATER Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, has bemoaned the poor inflow of revenue from Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) within the region, a situation he said impedes the development agenda of the government.
According to him, despite some revenue sources being devolved to district aassemblies such as rates; lands and royalties; business operating permit fees, fines and rents, mobilisation of Internally Generated Funds (IGF) at the local level is plagued with inefficiencies which undermine the ability of MMDAs to rake in the needed revenues.
Past experiences have shown that MMDAs are unable to raise enough IGF and subsequently deliver the much needed services such as sanitation and waste management, education and health infrastructure, roads, streetlights, drainages, street naming and property addressing system, for which ratepayers are demanding for.
Mr. Quartey, speaking at a Regional Budget Hearings for MMDAs organised by the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) in collaboration with Ministry of Finance (MoF), said this situation has compelled MMDAs to rely on the central government transfers and funding from development partners to complement their local revenue sources.
“Over-reliance on external sources may pose some development challenges for the MMDAs since any shock in terms of delay in releases of funds by the external bodies will impact negatively on the developmental agenda of the assemblies”, he opined.
The minister said that available records indicate that Greater Accra Region mobilized a total IGF of GHC123,977,894.76 in 2017 which constituted 42.68% of the national IGF collection.
The figure increased to GHC146,770,520.08 in 2018 which constituted 42.75% of the national IGF collection and further increased to GHC155,674,462.66 in 2019 accounting for 40.13% of the national IGF collection; but sadly dropped to GHC147,396,929.00 in 2020 which stood at 37.45% of the national IGF collection.
Budget Hearing
The Regional Budget Hearing programme which spans between Monday, October 18 to Thursday, October 21, 2021 at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly Hall is in accordance with Regulation 17 (3) of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019, LI 2378 as well as paragraph 119 of the 2022-2025 Budget Preparation Guidelines.
It is aimed at deepening participatory budgeting and accountability at the local level to provide an avenue for MMDAs to account for their stewardship as managers of local resources entrusted to them whilst offering the public the opportunity to appreciate the extent to which their honouring of financial obligations to the assemblies had been utilized for service delivery as well as projections made for the coming year and beyond.
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio