Poverty Dimensions of Public Governance and Forest Management ...

Annex 3: 27
(13 districts) = 22
By contrast, the Upper East Region, with six districts, has only two planning officers in all. Even the well-placed
Central Region, with 12 districts, has only 12 planning officers, with four of its districts having no one at post at all.
Consideration needs also to be given to retention of staff. For example, in 2000, the Ashanti Region lost a quarter of its
planning officers (9 out of a total of about 34), mostly, it is said, to NGOs able to pay much higher salaries than the
state.
Low technical capacity within the district-level civil service is compounded by low capacity within the elected
assemblies. Though the local elites are disproportionately represented, elected assembly members often have relatively
little formal education, and are easily intimidated by the appointees and professional staff. Local participation is
therefore low, and planning has only limited relevance to local needs. (Amanor and Annan, 1999, 13)
iii. Lack of a sound financial base
Districts have five primary sources of revenue (Botchie, 2000, 31-2):
a) Central government transfers, the main of which are the salaries of centrally paid DA staff, and the ‘District
Assembly Common Fund’ (DACF). This is calculated on a revenue formula based on a combination of an agreed
minimum payment to all districts, supplemented by a population factor and a development status factor relating to
access to public services in the principle town, with an additional ‘responsiveness’ component to motivate the
districts to increase their local revenue generation. The DACF is fixed, under the Constitution, as not less than 5%
of total revenues of the state.
b) Ceded revenues, being the total of revenues collected by the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of the DAs (as a
share of taxes on income, ceded revenue comprised only 1.5% in the period 1993-5).
c) Traditional district level revenues such as the basic rate (poll tax), property taxes, and others, to be fixed by the
Assembly itself, as well as licences (alcohol sales, hawkers, etc.) and fees such as market tolls and crop levies (for
exports across the district boundary).
d) External assistance from donor agencies, including NGOs; these are mostly for development projects in areas such
as health, education, water and sanitation, poverty reduction, and agriculture and micro-projects.
e) Other locally-generated revenues, such as (where applicable) mining and timber royalties.
Expenditure of the DACF is controlled by the central government , currently being allocated as follows:
Allocation:
Percentage
‘Development’ (education, health, agriculture) 50
Sanitation vehicle purchase 5
Capacity building 2
Rural electrification 3
Poverty alleviation 20
Self-help projects 10
Housing 5
Disaster management 5