A professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana has advised government to advance the local government’s tax system by providing them with the needed capacity to generate funding for their own socio-economic development.
According to Prof. Eric Osei-Assibey, the local government’s tax system needs to be decentralized and administratively strengthened before many of its problems could be addressed.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the Graphic/Stanbic Bank breakfast meeting in Accra, he explained that the move, would enable the local authorities to provide basic amenities to address the recurring issue of citizens holding the government to ransom every election year.
“If the local government tax system is efficient, you will see that during elections people will not be looking at the central government to provide certain basic amenities at that level.’’
“This is because we have not been able to help them to build enough capacity to be able to mobilize resources at the local level to meet their developmental needs. Revenue collection has been the bane of the country in recent times and in many cases when you look at our expenditure, you will realise the inefficiencies at the local government level,” he added.
He advised government to ensure that the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) reach the needed districts when expected.
IDEG research on local economic development
Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, Executive Director for the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) speaking at the meeting revealed that a research conducted by his outfit cited that local economic development in Ghana for the last 27 years had not been successful.
Dr Akwetey added that this was a result of the country not having enough maturity to use the few resources it had generated over the years efficiently.