Common Fund: Ashai Odamtten asks Government to obey the law

Mr Isaac Ashai Odamtten, Member of Parliament for the Tema East Constituency, has called on the President to release the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) in accordance with the law to help the various assemblies to function.

Mr Odamtten speaking at the Ghana News Agency-Tema Regional Office’s Industrial Board Room Dialogue platform, said “the President of this country must comply with the Constitution of this country.

“If the Constitution says every quarter revenue must be released to the common fund, it must be so”.

The Ghana News Agency Tema Industrial Board Room Dialogue is aimed at creating the needed platform for state, non-state, industry players and other stakeholders to address topical national issues.

Mr Odamtten said the 1992 Constitution of Ghana mandated government to release a minimum of five per cent of the Consolidated Fund of the country’s gross domestic revenue for the District Assemblies Common Fund.

“As we speak, we are in October three quarters are in arears, how do you expect the assemblies to engage the citizens through town hall meetings or community engagement,” he stressed.

Mr Odamtten who is a former Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive said the delay in releasing the fund for three consecutive quarters prevented the various assemblies from providing scholarships to brilliant but needy people, as well as giving the needed support to the disable community, among others.

He emphasized that “the common fund is to be released quarterly, so those who need support in the district can rely on the common fund, so we balance the national class system, so that those who do not have, the state support system can help them.

“But in a situation that those who have, will have it anyway, so that those that must go to the district assembly to see to communal services and social services are not going, then we are really impoverishing the poor and making the rich better all the time.”

He said the delay in the release accounted for the failure of the assemblies to meet some important mandates, saying “Government cannot renege on his responsibilities and expect its appointees to do the magic, it cannot renege on its responsibilities it doesn’t happen anywhere.”