District water budgets and expenditure tracking for sustainable rural service delivery in Ghana

Abstract

This study sought to scrutinize how the size of budget and expenditure for water has changed over the period between 2009 and 2014 in Akatsi South and Sunyani West districts. It also examined how the breakdown of these budgets and expenditures may have changed over time, in terms of a breakdown by life-cycle costs, and particularly whether there has been any increase in expenditure on recurrent costs, specifically capital maintenance expenditure and expenditure on direct support. Quantitative data collected, observed that although there has been a shift in focus from new investments to expenditure direct support and capital maintenance; it is not consistent over the years and relies exclusively on donor funds. There was also marginal improvement in budgetary allocations for water delivery in the districts. The expenditure, however, seems to bear little relationship with either overall district expenditure, or with the water budget. The overall expenses on water are highly erratic from 1 year to another, with sudden increases and drops. It is acknowledged that this study will enable central and local government to have a comprehensive picture of investments from local governments and other stakeholders showing total budgets, expenditure but also disaggregation per cost component. Without such data it is difficult for either local or central government to make informed decisions on where, when and how to invest resources and have significant negotiations with actual and potential donors.