Smaller districts that have no properly structured markets and viable options for raising revenues internally should have been merged. This would have ensured that the Districts’ only sustenance would not come from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).
These thoughts were shared by a Former Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Bukari. He said this when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show at his residence in Gambibgo in the Bolgatanga East District of the Upper East Region yesterday, Friday, July 1, 2022.
“Some of the districts are financially not sound. There is no place for generating revenue. They are depending on the Common Fund which is not fair. So many districts could have been merged. They are too small and they cannot manage themselves,” he said.
“The Common Fund is also not coming. NGOs too are not properly catered for now. We had people coming from outside to help, they are no more coming. The Assemblies are just virtually poor.”
“They [the Assemblies] have not also involved the chief to help in the collection of levies like the basic rates and cattle rates,” he said.
Earlier, Rockson Bukari urged Assemblies in the Upper East Region to strategize and scale up efforts at collecting internal revenues that would go towards the local developmental projects. He said over-reliance on the DACF is s recipe for disaster labelling the DACF as a “common problem”.
At the time Mr. Bukari was MCE, the Bolgatanga Municipality was comprised of the Nabdam District, Talensi District, Bolgatanga East District and Bolgatanga.
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During his time, he recalled that he had to task his revenue collectors to collect levies such as basic rates, property rates, cattle rates and many other levies that went directly toward the development of infrastructure within the Municipality.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
