“We observed that the Kassena Nankana Municipal Assembly budgeted to incur a total expenditure of GH¢460,000.00 from the MP’s common for the provision of infrastructure and social services in the year 2021 which the assembly failed to carry out even though the MP’s Common fund account had accrued a total of GH¢581,231.69 at the end of the financial year.”
This was contained in the Report of the Auditor-General on the Management and Utilisation of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and Other Statutory Funds for the year ended 31 December 2021.
The refusal of the Assembly to pursue the projects of the MP contravenes, “section 7 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016, (Act 921) [which] states among others that, a Principal Spending Officer of a covered entity shall ensure the regularity and proper use of money appropriated in the covered entity.”
The Auditor General’s report continued to read, “management could not provide the cause of this infraction but indicated that it has taken steps to ensure approval is sought from the Member of Parliament for the disbursement of the funds.”
“The practice has the tendency of delaying the progress and smooth flow of specific activities and support to beneficiaries in the constituency. We recommended that management immediately seeks the approval of the Member of Parliament to disburse the funds to specific budgeted activities for the benefit of the community.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
