THE IMPACT OF DISTRICT ASSEMBLY COMMON FUND ON SOCIO- ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN THE NEW JUABEN MUNICIPALITY BY BISMARK OKRAH (PG3082009) 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 JUNE 2011 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this submission is my own work towards the Commonwealth Executive Masters in Business Administration and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published by another person nor material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree of the University, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text. BISMARK OKRAH ……………………..….. …….……………. STUDENT ID: PG 30822009 Signature Date Certified by: JOSEPH A. MENSAH ……………..….. …….……………. Supervisor Signature Date PROF. I. K. DONTWI ……………..….. …….……………. Dean - IDL Signature Date ii (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 iii administration of the DACF; and Institutionalisation of the tracking of the DACF, using participatory methods. iv DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my father Mr. Stephen K. Okrah and my mother Comfort Abena Domase Okrah for showing profound interest in my education. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ................................................................................................................. ii ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................... ...iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................................. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................ ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY ................................................................................ 1 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ............................................................................... 4 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY...... ............................................................................... 5 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................. 5 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ................................................................................. 6 1.6 SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONS.................................................................................... 7 1.7 ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY............................................................................... 8 vi CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 CONCEPT OF DISTRICT ASSEMBLY COMMON FUND .......................................... 9 2.2 DECENTRALISATION AS A TOOL FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT ....................... 13 2.3 REVENUE AS PREREQUISITE FOR EFFECTIVE RURAL ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT ............................................................................................................. 18 2.4 MEASUREMENT OF BENEFITS OF DECENTRALISATION................................... 19 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1 TYPES OF DATA ........................................................................................................ 20 3.2 POPULATION AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUES....................................................... 20 3.3 SAMPLE SIZE ............................................................................................................. 22 3.4 METHODS USED FOR DATA COLLECTION ........................................................... 22 3.5 METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS .............................................................................. 23 CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSING OF DATA 4.1 DATA ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................... 26 4.2 CONCLUSION ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1 SUMMARY .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 5.2 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 45 5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................... 46 REFERENCE LIST....................................................................................................... 53-55 APPENDICES .............................................................................................................. 56-61 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Enrolment in the schools ..................................................................................... 246 Table 2: Types of illness and average attendance at the clinic .............................................. 30 Table 3: Amount released by HJMA for disbursement ........................................................ 31 Table 4: Disbursement to beneficiary groups ..................................................................... 330 Table 5: Amount collected by the beneficiaries ................................................................... 33 Table 6: Percentage increase in profit .................................................................................. 38 Table 7: Types of infrastructure........................................................................................... 41 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Disbursement of the poverty alleviation fund ....................................................... 34 Figure 2: Respondents and their respective business ventures.............................................36 Figure 3: Benefits from the poverty alleviation fund ............................................................ 38 ix x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DAs - Districts Assemblies DACF - District Assembly common fund NRCD - National Redemption Council Decree NJM - New Juaben Municipality NJMA - New Juaben Municipal Assembly SSS - Senior Secondary School SSSCE - Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination BECE - Basic Education Certificate Examination FCUBE - Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education KVIP - Kumasi Ventilated Improved Pit-Latrine xi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In coming out with this work I owe a debt of gratitude to all those who helped in diverse ways to make this work a success. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Joseph Mensah of the Institute of Distance Learning, KNUST, who took time to read through the manuscript and made the necessary suggestions. I am indebted to Mr. Stephen K. Okrah, my father for his support and endurance in