Assessing financial management and procurement capacities in donor-funded projects in district assemblies in Ashanti.
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Date
2008-10-21
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Abstract
Ghana like most of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, receives assistance from both the multilateral and bilateral organizations in the form of direct budget support and project/program finance. These funds are used to carry out development projects through the various government sector ministries, who also in turn channel these funds through the various Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies (MMDAs) for various projects as required by the government decentralization programme.
To ensure that funds disbursed to African governments whether in the form of grants, loan or credits are used for intended purposes, multilateral and bilateral agencies set up the guidelines that these governments should follow to ensure judicious utilization of the funds.
Periodic country performance assessment is carried out by the donor agencies to ensure that prescribed rules and guidelines are followed by beneficiary countries. The outcome of the assessment feeds into the donors future funds allocations to beneficiary countries. According to the World Bank Report on Ghana’s Public Financial Management (2006), weakness in the efficient resource utilization usually results in substantial balances of donor funds often unutilized at the end of donor funded project implementation period, which are often cancelled to the disadvantage of the country.
Financial management and procurement performance are among the critical areas that feed into donor performance assessment which also impacts on the amount of donor funds that a country could be allocated in subsequent years. Consequently, all efforts need to be step up to enhance Ghana’s performance in these areas.
The study therefore sought to carry out an assessment of financial management and procurement in donor-funded projects at the local levels of government where most of the donor projects are carried out.
The study revealed among other things; lack of qualified personnel at the local level in the area of financial management and procurement, lack of commitment and intentional display of lukewarm attitudes on the part of district level personnel, delays in the release of government funds to the MMDAs, as well as long payment processing system.
The study therefore recommends, the need to improve working conditions in the public sector to attract young and qualified accountants and procurements personnel, the establishment of procurement units at all MMDAs fully equipped and staffed with qualified personnel, the need to set up a procurement monitoring and audits team. The study finally recommends the setting up of periodic performance appraisal system for all MMDAs.
Description
A Thesis submitted to the Department of Accounting and Finance
School of Business
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration, 2008