Parliament has approved the proposed formula for the distribution of the District Assemblies Common Fund for the year 2023.
The allocation to the Fund, GH₵4,554,034,657, constitutes five per cent of total revenue of the country for the implementation of development programmes in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) pursuant to Article 252(2).
Of the amount, GH₵379,351,087 had been earmarked for national institutional support programmes in the areas of youth, employment and disaster.
According to the Committee of the Whole report on the proposed formula which was approved in Parliament on Thursday, GH₵668,625,860 would go into national education programme, special projects, national sanitation support, and construction of courts amongst others.
The said GH₵539,322,773 has been earmarked for reserve projects like constituency labour, constituency labour monitoring and evaluation, GH₵64,554,035 in indirect transfers to the MMDAs for distressed district support, training and cured lepers and GH₵2,902,180,903 directly to the MDAs.
The report signed by the Chairman of the Committee and First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu, observed that the Ministry of Finance has been unable to release GH₵6.4 billion to DACF between 2019 and 2022.
"The Committee noted that an amount of GH₵1,119,233,608 and GH₵1,519,297,388 representing a shortfall in Common Fund releases for 2020 and 2021 respectively is owed to the Fund.
"It was also noted that out of GH₵3.342 billion earmarked for the Fund for the year 2022, the Ministry of Finance has released an amount of GH₵1.17 billion.
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"However, out of the amount released, only a paltry sum of GH₵300 million has been paid to the Office of the District Assembly Common Fund by the Controller and Accountant General's Department.
"The allocation for the second, third and fourth quarters of 2022 are yet to be released. The Committee considers the non-release as a breach of Article 225(2) of the 1992 Constitution and urges the Ministry of Finance to release the arrears of GH₵2.172 billion of the Fund for 2022 within the shortest possible time" the Committee said in its 13-page report.
The Committee said it noted "inconsistencies" in the releases to the DACF between 2019 and 2022.
In this regard, the Committee said it has recommended that an ad-hoc committee made up of the leadership of the House, and Members on the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development with officials of the DACF, Controller and Accountant General's Department and the Ministry of Finance, is constituted to "reconcile" the arrears owed to the Fund.
The House, meanwhile, has approved the distribution formula for the National Health Insurance Scheme.
By the approval, the Scheme would be given GH₵1.609 billion for the payment of claim of health service providers for a projected active membership base, 19,246,580.
"The budgeted has factored in expected medical inflation, 30.17 per cent increase in tariffs and the expansion of the benefit package to absorb four of six childhood cancers, hydroxyurea for managing sickle cell disease and the nationwide rollout of family planning," the report explained.
