Upper East Departments unhappy over delay disbursement of gov’t subvention
Heads of government departments in the Upper East Region have expressed worry at the government’s inability to release subvention to departments on schedule and said this was undermining output.
The heads expressed their concern at a regional mid-year cross sector review meeting organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (UERCC) in Bolgatanga on Tuesday.
Some said they had not received subventions since last year and others said they had not received any subvention from January 2013 till now.
“This is seriously making our work difficult since we cannot do any effective monitoring and supervision or undertake other activities,” they said.
The participants urged the government to reverse the trend to enable departments to function efficiently to bring about development, adding “most of us have packed our vehicles since we can no longer fuel and service them.”
Heads from education institutions expressed concern about the lack of core text books such as Mathematics, English and Science in most schools in the Region particularly at the basic level and said this was undermining the academic performance of the children.
Late release of capitation grants by the government, lack of sanitation facilities in most schools, most school structures not being disability friendly, migration of school children to southern Ghana immediately school go on vacation as well as parents encouraging early marriages of their daughters and child labour were mentioned as some of the problems facing the Region.
Ms Clara Dube, Chief Field Officer of UNICEF in Tamale, said it was important for all stakeholders to get involved in speeding up the achievement of the MDGs.
She appealed to the Ghana Education Service to ensure that they accessed the Global Partnership for Education facility to help improve the standards of education in the Region.
Mr Daniel Syme, Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, lauded UNICEF for the programme and said plans were far advanced by the RCC to tackle problems that draw the development of the Region back.
Source: GNA