Avoid discrimination in resource allocation – Minister

Alhaji Issahaque Salia, Upper West Regional Minister, has complained about the discrimination in resource allocation to district assemblies in the country.

He said while some decentralized departments budget and receive transfers from various sources including development partners and government, others do not have such opportunities.

He said the effect of this was that whilst some departments and services were starved of funds, resulting in their poor performance there were also duplications of resources on some programmes and projects in other districts.

Alhaji Salia said this at the launch of the 2012 Composite Budget hearing for District Assemblies in the Upper West Region held in Wa on Tuesday.

He said the implementation of the Composite Budget in the 2012 financial year would mark an important milestone in Ghana’s decentralization process.

He said fiscal decentralisation was a prime mover and a critical component of the decentralisation program which was intended to facilitate the implementation of the entire decentralisation policy.

Alhaji Salia said decentralization was taking place around the world in order to meet the development needs and aspirations of people at the local level.

He said decentralization would improve efficiency and effectiveness in mobilizing and allocating scarce national resources for local development issues.

Composite Budget includes budgets under which departments of the district assemblies are integrated into the budgets of the district assemblies.

It also imposes an obligation on each district assembly to be responsible for the preparation, administration and control of the budgetary allocations of the departments specified in schedule one of the LI 1961, 2009.

Source: GNA