Local Government Revenue Mobilisation and Management: the case of Asante Akim South District Assembly, Ghana

Abstract

Ghana’s comprehensive decentralisation programme aimed at bringing governance closer to the citizens was implemented in the late 1980s. This period witnessed the gradual transfer of power, authority and resources to the District Assemblies. The decentralisation programme has since made modest gains, especially in promoting local participation in political governance. However, one of the biggest challenges facing the District Assemblies in Ghana is how to effectively mobilise revenue internally to support local development initiatives. This paper examines the challenges confronting the Asante Akim South District Assembly in its revenue mobilisation and management drive. The data were collected through in-depth interviews, group discussion and review of relevant financial documents of the Assembly, particularly the Trial Balance Sheets. Clearly, the Asante Akim South District Assembly performs poorly in internal revenue mobilisation. Comparatively, the internally generated fund is the least contributor to district revenue. We also noticed that a wide difference exists between budgeted revenue or expenditure and the actual revenue or expenditure, especially in 2002. In addition, we found that a large amount of the internally generated fund is spent on recurrent expenditure (personnel emoluments, travel and transport, and miscellaneous). We also found that any increase in revenue has a corresponding increase in expenditure. These findings do not present a good picture as far as the financial condition of the Asante Akim South District Assembly is concern. As such, there is the need for the Assembly to initiate measures aimed at improving revenue mobilisation and management.