Workshop on composite budgeting held

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Mr. Zakari Adbulai, the Coordinating Director of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA), has explained that implementation of the Composite Budget is still a process which needs a lot of attention to be able to achieve its goals.

He said for the Composite Budget to be successful, Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are to ensure that their expenditure is within a particular budget that has been approved.

?The Composite Budget is a major reform toward ensuring that resources are available for functions that have been transferred to MMDAs, and for improving the efficiency and accountability of MMDAs,? he said.

He said this at the opening of a two-day training programme on the Composite Budget for chief executives, coordinating directors, heads of department and sub-committee members in MMDAs of the Western Region.

Topics discussed include Ghana?s decentralisation policy; decentralisation arrangements; decentralisation arrangements; context of fiscal decentralisation; and why fiscal decentralisation.

The rest are the underlying principles of fiscal decentralisation; Composite Budget and fiscal decentralisation; legal basis for implementation of composite budget; road-map to implementing the Composite Budget in Ghana; as well as key features of the composite budget process.

Mr. Zakari pointed out that the immediate impact of the composite budget is for MMDAs to restructure their expenditure to conform to what is expected — the Composite Budget will help improve on the way we handle our budget.

?Since our developmental agenda is the priority, it is important for us as an assembly to spend within our budget,? he said.

Mrs. Eva Arthur, an official at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) speaking on Composite Budget and fiscal decentralisation explained that Composite Budget is an aggregation of projected revenue and expenditure of the departments and institutions of the MMDAs.

?It has been defined under Section 92 (3) of the Local Government Act of 1993 as ?The budget for a district shall include the aggregate revenue and expenditure of all departments and organisations under the District Assembly and the district coordinating directorate, including the annual development plans and programmes of the departments and organisations under the assembly?,? she added.

According to her, the legal basis for implementation of Composite Budget in Ghana is that the 1992 Constitution Chapter 20 — Principles of State policy (d) — make democracy a reality by decentralising the administrative and financial machinery of government to the regions and districts, and by affording all possible opportunities for the people to participate in decision-making at every level in national life and in government.

?According to Chapter 20 240 (2) a) Parliament shall enact appropriate laws to ensure that functions, powers, responsibilities and resources are at all times transferred from the Central Government to local government units in a coordinated manner,? she added.

She further explained that the objective of the Composite Budget is to ensure that funds follow functions to give meaning to the staff-transfers which took place — establishing an effective integrated budgeting system that supports intended goals, expectation and performance of government

Also, she said, it is to deepen uniform means of planning, budgeting, financial reporting and auditing in a more comprehensive manner that covers every aspect and all activities of the MMDAs — facilitating harmonised development and introducing an element of fiscal prudence in the management of public funds at the MMDA level.

Mrs. Arthur said it is expected that the Composite Budget will facilitate effective management of the National Budget, including a reduction and decoupling of the over-centralisation of functions that are deemed to be district-oriented in pursuance of the decentralisation process within the meaning of the principle of subsidiary.

Again, she said, it will help with social intervention programmes in the education and health sectors targetted at the poor in the districts, which can now be off-loaded to the MMDAs for effective implementation.

By Juliet AGUIAR, Takoradi

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