1.0 INTRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS AND BACKGROUND RECOMMENDATIONS DDF. RESEARCH Report. m a n d a t e c a n b e i m p o s e d o n contractors.

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2 HIGHLIGHTS The District Development Facility was in arrears for three years. Districts which qualified for the grant in 2013 did not receive the funds as of April. This was caused by government's delay in raising counterpart funding. FOAT assessment for 2014 was undertaken in, indicating a twoyear time lag. About 30% of projects initiated in 2013 have suffered time overrun. They were incomplete by April due to delay by contractors and contract variations. Citizens' knowledge of as observed was very low. Nine in ten citizens including Unit Committee members had no knowledge of funds received by the assemblies. Community participation was reported low at all levels of project design and implementation. RECOMMENDATIONS FOAT assessment should be conducted within six months after each fiscal year. FOAT assessment indicators should be reviewed to include direct citizens' feedback. The current framework seeks this information from assemblies instead of citizens. MMDAs should increase monitoring of contractors and apply sanctions where there are violations. Signboards/placards indicating source(s) of funding should be boldly mounted/labelled on all projects carried out by the assemblies as was done for the HIPC funded projects. This 02 m a n d a t e c a n b e i m p o s e d o n contractors. Compliance with the Disability Act should be made one of the key indicators in assessing district assemblies. 1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1.1. Introduction In accordance with the fiscal decentralization objective of the Government of Ghana (GoG), district assemblies (DAs) receive financial resources to execute local development plans. The District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), which was set up in 1993, is at least 7.5% of national revenue distributed among all DAs using a formula approved by parliament. Over the years, the DACF has not been sufficient to meet the financial needs of DAs, leaving significant development gap. Compounding the financial challenges is the irregular releases of the fund. For DAs that are unable to raise significant Internally Generated Funds (IGF), delayed release affect them greatly. Yet, DAs' management of the limited resources has often been a cause for worry. Various forms of irregularities are often cited by the Auditor General in its yearly audit reports suggesting the need for a robust public financial management system. To increase financial resources to DAs and at the same time ensure its efficient utilisation, the Government of Ghana in partnership with its 1 development partners instituted the performance-based grant termed the District Development Facility () in Agence Francaise Development (AFD), Canadian Development Agency (CIDA), Danish Development Agency (DANIDA and German Development Bank (GDB)

3 st Figure 1 : Partners Contribution for 1 Phase of Grant Government of Ghana (GOG) contributed30% GOG KfW (Germany) DANIDA (Denmark) CIDA (Canada) AFD 1.3. Qualification for Grant Access to the is determined by performance after an annual assessment of each M M D A u s i n g t h e F u n c t i o n a l a n d Organisational Assessment Tool (FOAT). The FOAT assesses performances of MMDAs in relation to their compliance with government's policies, rules and regulations, and procedures 2 in carrying out their mandated functions. Indicators for assessment are focused on thematic areas such as planning, budgeting, finance, management and organisation, transparency and accountability as well as fiscal capacity, procurement, financial management and relationship with sub-district structure. The grant has three components namely: basic grant, performance grant and capacity grant. The capacity grant is given to all MMDAs offering them the opportunity to enhance their capacity. In order to qualify for the two other components basic and performance grants MMDAs need to pass the Minimum Conditions (MCs) and the Performance Measures (PMs) under the FOAT assessment. The MCs are those conditions that MMDAs need to fulfill in order to qualify to access the basic grant component of the. MMDA's failure to meet the MCs means that, that MMDA has failed the FOAT assessment for that particular year. The PMs are those conditions that determine each MMDA's allocation of 's performance grant Objectives of Study and Methodology This report examines the flow of funds and the utilization of funds by district assemblies. In accordance with the objectives of the decentralization framework, it assesses citizens' involvement in development initiative funded by the. The report uses data collected from 25 districts out of the 30 selected districts across the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Greater Accra regions from April to May. 2.0 MAIN FINDINGS 2.1. Access to District Development Facility There has been an improvement in the number of assemblies which have qualified for the since its introduction. For instance, the proportion of MMDAs qualifying for the increased from 38% in 2008 to 3 90% in Between 2008 and 2013, the number of assemblies qualifying for increased from 6 to 26 districts in the Northern Region, from 4 to 11 in the Upper West Region, from 4 to 13 districts in the Upper East Region, and from zero (0) to 16 districts in the 4 Greater Accra Region. The study gathered that increment in the number of assemblies accessing all Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (2010) st and Daily Graphic 1 April, 03

4 the three components of the fund can be attributed to the capacity enhancement intervention implemented by the fund. Other reasons include influence of assembly members and opinion leaders in some assemblies. For instance, the study gathered that in the case of Nadowli, some influential persons within the assembly put pressure on management to ensure that it qualified in subsequent assessments when it 5 failed in For some staff of most of the assemblies, the pride of being among the best MMDAs motivated them to fulfill their FOAT related obligations to enable them qualify. While the number of beneficiary assemblies has increased significantly over the years, the quantum of fund has only increased marginally. For instance, total available fund increased only by approximately 2% between 2011 and This affects total award to beneficiary MMDAs in a year where many qualify. Out of the 21 MMDAs that provided data, the Bolgatanga Municipal in the Upper East received the highest disbursement (GH 2,999,960) between 2011 and 2013 with the least going to Shai-Osudoku District in the Greater Accra Region (See appendix 1). 2.2 Release of Funds to Assemblies There are delays in release of funds to qualified assemblies. For instance, qualified assemblies for the 2013 financial year were yet to receive their funds as at May. The study gathered that publication of the results 7 and allocation was done in April. In previous instances, funds were often received by assemblies within 3 to 6 months after the publication of results and allocations. The delay in release of funds to qualified assemblies was blamed on delay by government to raise counterpart funding. Interestingly, FOAT assessment for 2014 was being conducted in (at the time of data collection) indicating a two-year time lag. The reason for the delay as gathered by the study was a delay in the mid-term review of the and assessment tool. Such delays often result in MMDAs rolling over their plans from one year or term to another, retarding completion of projects. 2.3 Utilisation of Funds The study observed that all projects implemented between 2012 and 2013 were taken from the Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) and the annual Action Plans of the various assemblies. Out of the 139 projects undertaken by the assemblies in 2013, 100 projects representing 71.9% were in the educational sector, while the remaining 39 projects representing 28.1% were in the health sector. Comparably, 95% of the funds went into infrastructural projects in the health and education 5 Engineers without borders June 2010;Evaluating the functional organizational assessment tool process Daily Graphic April 1, 04

5 sectors, while a marginal 5% of the funds went into the supply of learning materials and the provision of furniture. With the exception of the construction of male surgical ward in Lawra District Hospital in the Upper West Region, all projects which commenced in 2012 have been completed and were in use. Almost 30% of projects initiated in 2013 were incomplete at the time of data collection. When officials of the assemblies were contacted, they cited delays by contractors (83.3%) and contract variations (16.7%) as the main reasons for the delays. This could not be verified with the contractors as they were not on site at the time of data collection. During the Focus Group Discussions (FGD) held across the regions, beneficiary communities confirmed increased access to social services. For instance, in Janjori Kukuo, a suburb in the Savelugu Municipality, discussants mentioned that the provision of accommodation for nurses had greatly impacted on healthcare delivery. Prior to that, the nurses stayed in Tamale and commuted to the facility on daily basis. Having residence in the community, the nurses were able to attend to emergency cases at any given time. An overly excited female discussant who couldn't hide her feeling noted that, The last time when one woman was in labour at night, we went and woke her [the nurse] up and she attended to us, and the woman delivered safely. Before now, we either would have run around to find a way of taking her to Savelugu, or she delivers at home. In the same vein, building of a threeunit class room block in Kukuazugu in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region has improved learning for pupils who hitherto studied on the floor under Newly Constructed Dokpong CHPS Compound in Wa Municipal 05

6 DCMC on project site (Children's ward at the district hospital) dilapidated structure. As noted by the headteacher of the school, The building was so deplorable to the extent that whenever clouds gathered, we had to close and allow the school children to go home. The study generally observed compliance with the disability law which stipulates that all public projects be made disability friendly. The only deviation was noted in Dakpong CHPS Compound in Wa Municipal which lacks walk way for persons with disability Community Participation in the Implementation of Project One of the key ingredients of development at the grassroots level is community participation. Citizens' participation leads to o w n e r s h i p, u t i l i s a t i o n a n d sustainability of the projects. As a result, one of the indicators for assessing district assemblies under the FOAT assessment is evidence of citizens' participation. The study assessed the level of community participation in the implementation of projects. It observed d i v e r g e n t v i e w s o n w h a t c o n s t i t u t e d c o m m u n i t y participation. Data gathered indicated that the a s s e m b l i e s c o n s u l t e d w i t h community members in selecting projects through the MTDP process, which community members largely agreed with. However, they argued further that participation goes beyond consultation through the Magistrate court under construction in Wechiau Wechiau Health Assistant Training School under construction MTDP process. They indicated that during project implementation, their inputs were not solicited; most a s s e m b l y m e m b e r s h a r d l y organized durbars to solicit their views. A discussant from Jirapa noted that, They [assembly members] hardly consult us especially for us women who constitute the larger populace. The views of the assembly members whom they claim they consulted do not represent the views and opinion of the wider community, the assembly really needs to broaden its scope of consultation. Nine in ten discussants mentioned that they did not have adequate knowledge on the various sources of funding available to 06

7 Participants during the policy sensitization in Nadowli the assemblies. They considered all projects as funded by the DACF. Even Unit Committee members who participated in discussions had no afore knowledge of the. The few members who were aware of it attributed it to a sensitisation organised by SEND GHANA in March, which created the platform for the assembly to share information. Furthermore, some communities raised concerns over the citing of some projects. They mentioned that they would have preferred a different location if they were consulted. An example was given during FGD in Jirapa where participants bemoaned the location of a new lorry station constructed by the assembly with funds. According to them, the location of the lorry station used to be a market, which was more accessible and would have wished the market was maintained. A participant during FGD said, Where the market is being moved to is a bit far away from the lorry park; it is difficult for us, especially the elderly, to walk there. 3.0 CONCLUSION Like all funds that are transferred to the districts, the has contributed significantly to improving service delivery at the various communities. The FOAT has demonstrated its ability to inspire MMDAs to build their administrative capacities in performing their duties. This is evident by the increment in the number of MMDAs qualifying over the years. Also, it has significantly improved infrastructure in health and education in the various districts. The use of the FOAT to assess MMDAs to some extent has increased transparency and accountability especially with respect to the financial management, auditing, planning and budgeting. 07

8 Although has contributed to the improvement in the administrative capacities of MMDAs, there are a number of challenges that need immediate attention. Currently, there are delays in disbursements to assemblies which affect the implementation of their MTDPs. The assemblies are currently implementing the 2014 to 2017 MTDPs, yet they have not received funds for 2013 while assessments for 2014 and 2015 are yet to be completed. Furthermore, communities which are supposed to monitor and provide feedback on local development do not have information about the funds. The FOAT's use of information provided by assemblies to assess community involvement does not provide adequate room for citizens to contribute to the process. Project time and cost overrun have become characteristics of public businesses draining the limited resources. Some of these occurrences are ignored in spite of clauses in contracts specifying sanctions. In the end, the poor tax payer spends in excess for projects which would have cost less if completed on time. 4.0 RECOMMENDATION The following recommendations are made based on the findings of the study as discussed above: disbursement of funds to the a s s e m b l i e s t o e n s u r e f u l l implementation of the assemblies' MTDPs. All district assemblies should increase their monitoring of contractors to ensure timely completion of projects, and accordingly, sanctions in contracts should be applied when contractors do not comply with terms of engagement. There is the need for government to review assessment indicators to include direct feedback from citizens. FOAT should have sections which solicit feedback from citizens on their involvement in decision making and project implementation. Signboards/placards indicating source(s) of funding should be boldly mounted/labelled on all projects carried out by the assemblies as was done for the HIPC funded projects. This mandate can be imposed on contractors. Finally, the law on making public facilities disability friendly must be continuously enforced by the government and secretariats in the implementation of projects. It should also be one of the key indicators in assessing district assemblies. The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the secretariat, as a matter of urgency, must speed up with the FOAT assessment, and also with the 08

9 APPENDIX 1: District Development Facility Funds for District Assemblies ( ) Table1: District Development Facility Fund for Assemblies ( ) District Bolga Bongo Bawku west Bawku Municipal Telensi Kasena/Nakana West Lawra Nadowli Jirapa Wa East Lambussie Sissala West Zabzugu Yendi Sawla Tuna Kalba Tolon West Mamprusi _ Adenta Municipal Shai-Osudoku Ada East Tamale Metro Wa West Ga South Municipal _ Total Average

10 Table 2: District Development Facility Fund for Upper East ( ) UPPER EAST District Bolga Bongo Bawku West Bawku Municipal Telensi Kasena/Nakana West Total for the districts Average per district Average for period per district Table 3: District Development Facility Fund for Upper West ( ) UPPER WEST District Lawra Nadowli Jirapa Wa East Lambussie Sissala West Total for the districts Average per district Average for period per district Table 4: District Development Facility Fund for Northern Region ( ) NORTHERN REGION District Zabzugu Yendi Sawla Tuna Kalba _ 4 Tolon West Mamprusi _ Total for the districts Average per district Average for period per district

11 Table 5: District Development Facility Fund for Greater Accra Region ( ) GREATER ACCRA REGION District Adenta Municipal Shai-Osudoku Ada East Ga South Municipal _ Total for the districts Average per district Average for period per district Table 6: Average for the 21 Districts District Bolga Bongo Bawku west Bawku Municipal Telensi Kasena/Nakana West 7 Lawra Nadowli Jirapa Wa East Lambussie Sissala West Zabzugu Yendi Tolon Adenta Municipal Shai-Osudoku Ada East Total allocation Average allocation

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