The Chamber of Local Governance (ChaLoG) has accused the government of misappropriating funds meant for developing district assemblies.

The Chamber’s comments follow the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia’s allegations that the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) had been collateralised, thereby denying assemblies the ability to fund projects and develop local communities.

Speaking to Citi News, President of ChaLog, Dr. Richard Fiadomor said the DACF is rather being used for projects that are not in tandem with the responsibilities of the Fund.

“We are having a situation whereby the Common Fund administrator is awarding contracts by building courts and police stations in districts, and those projects are supposed to be done by those district assemblies. We are having a situation whereby the Common Fund administrator is engaging in the procurement of furniture for classrooms after districts have built schools.

“Assemblies are not consulted on what they want to use their Common Fund for. We heard one day that the president was commissioning DRIP and you had the Common Fund administrator coming up to tell everybody, every Ghanaian in the whole world, that the source of the DRIP money was from the Common Fund. For Christ’s sake, that is not what the Common Fund is supposed to be used for.”