The Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) is calling for a statutory timetable for the release of the Common Fund, backed by law, to curb delays in disbursements and accelerate district development.
According to Michael Harry Yamson, delays in the release of funds continue to stall development projects across various districts despite approved budgets and planned programmes.
“The biggest issue is the shortfall between the promise and what is released to us to be transferred to them, and that’s what we must work on,” he stated.
Mr Yamson explained that district assemblies often prepare their budgets at the beginning of the year but struggle to execute projects because funds are delayed.
“Every time there’s a delay, such as now, when we started in January, districts have done their budgets. They’ve promised certain development, but nothing can happen until money comes,” he said.
He warned that when releases are delayed until May, June or July, assemblies are forced to compress an entire year’s development agenda into a few months, leading to rushed and poor-quality projects.
“So, for five months of this year, nothing can happen in respect of the 2026 development agenda. The money will come maybe May, maybe June, maybe July, and then we are crashing a whole year’s programme into six months, and that is where the problems then come with shoddy work, rushed work and delayed work,” Michael Harry Yamson stressed.
The DACF Administrator said the solution lies in making the release timetable a legal requirement.
“I believe that as government, the biggest thing we can do now is to lock the timetable for the releases into law, to ensure that as GRA receives money every day, the 5% or the 7% or the 10% for the Common Fund is set aside automatically and released on the first day of the next quarter,” he noted.
He also revealed plans to shift development planning from district-based allocations to an electoral area-focused distribution model using data in collaboration with the Electoral Commission of Ghana.
According to Michael Harry Yamson, the move is intended to ensure more equitable regional development, particularly in deprived regions such as the Oti Region.
“We know the deprivation that a new region like Oti will have, and we have to make sure that now that we are going granular, we do it in such a way that we remove the regional disparities,” he added.
On revenue generation, he disclosed that the DACF aims to increase private grant funding to 15% of its total managed funds by 2028.
Mr Yamson further stated that the Fund plans to strengthen partnerships with development finance institutions through the Community Partners Fund to support local development projects.
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