The Impact of District Assembly Common Fund On Socio-Economic Activities in the New Juaben Municipality

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Date
2011
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Abstract
The research investigates the impact of the District Assembly Common Fund on socio-economic activities in the New Juaben Municipality. The objectives of the study were to determine how the New Juaben Municipal Assembly (NJMA) has been using its share of the common fund over the past 5 years; analyse the socio-economic impact of the use of the DACF on the people in the Municipality and also analyse the problems the Municipal Assembly encounters in the use of the DACF in the Municipality. The population for the study was all the people in NJM. However, it was divided into five main respondent groups based on the five main research questions. This elicited the use of a variety of sampling techniques and sampling sizes. The main data collection instruments were questionnaire, interviews and observations, and these were focused on education, health, poverty alleviation, social amenities and infrastructural development. It was found that the NJMA has used its share of the DACF to promote education in the municipality. This has benefited the communities through an increase in enrolment in schools. There is an improvement in the health delivery system as a result of the use of the DACF to build a community health clinic in one of the communities, which other communities can easily have access. On the benefits from the poverty alleviation fund, there were mixed feelings. Some people have benefited, others have not derived any benefit. On social amenities, it was revealed that none of the six communities used as the research area has benefited from any form of social amenity. The NJMA has used its share of the DACF to provide infrastructural facilities. Infrastructure like septic tank latrine, hand dug well, feeder roads and electricity have been provided through DACF. It is recommended that government and other stakeholders should strengthen the financial management and use of the DACF and other public resources by the MMDAs and also streamline the system through: Public education on the DACF and its uses, transparency in the disbursements and utilization of the Fund. Reconsideration of the allocation of the Fund; flexibility in the guidelines f the allocation, disbursements and utilization of the Fund to cater for peculiarities in the various communities ; strengthening of mechanisms for mobilization of internally generated funds (IGF);ninimization of political interference in the administration of the DACF; and Institutionalisation of the tracking of the DACF, using participatory methods.
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A Dissertation Presented to the Institute of Distance Learning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, In Partial Fulfilment of the Award of Commonwealth Executive Masters in Business Administration (CEMBA) Degree,
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