Budget officers urged to address financial lapses at MMDAs
Mr George Hagan, a Deputy Minister of Finance, has called on budget officers across the country to address financial management lapses at the Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs).
This, he said, would bring about trust and meaning into the ongoing fiscal decentralisation reforms which entailed entrusting Assemblies with the authority to generate and utilize financial resources to promote socio-economic development.
Mr Hagan said this during the maiden budget officers’ conference for MMDAs across the country.
He said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning had initiated a number of Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms aimed at improving functions of government and ensure that they are carried out effectively, efficiently and economically.
“Government wants to be able to channel funds to where they are intended and ensure that efficient services are delivered to the good people of this country,” he said.
Mr Hagan expressed concern about instances whereby government had to battle with how to deal with the mounting wage bill that competes with resources needed to improve on services.
He lauded government for the implementation of Composite Budget which enabled it to obtain comprehensive information on all resources available at the MMDAs and how such resources are utilised.
“As you know, the Composite Budget which we started implementing in 2012 would enable our ministry to strengthen reporting and accounting on the use of public resources,” he said.
He said although there had been some challenges relating to delays in the release of funds to MMDAs, government had began implementing measures to ensure that resources were disbursed in a more predictable and timely manner.
“The ministry has commissioned a number of studies and is in the process of developing an Inter-governmental Fiscal Policy Framework to streamline the flow of resources to the MMDAs”, Mr Hagan said.
Mr Hagan urged them to ensure elimination of weaknesses that undermined budgeting performances and produce poor budgetary outcomes including poor resource allocation, poor budgetary control leading to unwarranted fiscal arrears and inadequate reporting of financial performance and others.
He urged them to support their respective MMDAs to adopt good budget practices such as instituting adequate budget control procedures and avoid accumulated arrears at the end of the month.
Mr Hagan tasked budget officers to ensure that their MMDAs restricted themselves solely to projects in their budget as per the Annual Action Plan (AAP) and control unbudgeted expenditures.
“You must also ensure that uncompleted projects have first charges on the ensuing year’s budget of your assemblies,” he said.
He appealed to them to pay attention to Internal Revenue Generation and ensure that part of their Internally Generated Fund collected is used for project which would benefit the poor in their assemblies.
Mr Patrick Nomo, Director of Budget, Ministry of Finance, explained that the conference was necessitated by the desire of the ministry to ensure that budget officers across the country meet to deliberate on the ongoing Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms.
He said it also aimed at paving the way towards ensuring good budget outcomes.
“We intend to also use the opportunity to meet budget officers annually as one big family with a common vision to discuss budget issues confronting the nation and also issue affecting budget officers”, he added.
Dr Callistus Mahama, acting Head of Service, Local Government Service, appealed to the budget officers to form associations both at the regional and national levels to fight for their cause.
He pledged the readiness of his outfit to assist them in the formation of the associations and urged them to work for the betterment of the country.
Source: GNA