…on behalf of SMEs
Posted:The Chronicle | Tuesday, December 15, 2009
By Charles Takyi - Boadu
The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), together with the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, has appealed to Parliament, as an institution, to be more responsive to the concerns of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).
This was after going round the country to gather at firsthand, information of the concerns of these SMEs. The Facilitator of the BUSAC Fund and Chief Executive Officer of KAB Governance Consult (KAC), said they realised the need to brief the Parliament Select Committee on Local Government on some of the challenges of the concerns of the SMEs on their relations with the district assemblies.
Present were the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government, Dominic Azumah, his Vice, George Kuntu Blankson, and other members, including Ranking Member, Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Stephen Kunsu and Emmanuel Aboagye Didieye.
Also present were Bright Blewu and Affail Monney, representing the GJA.
In his address, Mr. Afriyie Badu raised issues with the deduction of certain monies from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).
Though the country’s constitution makes a provision for the transfer of a minimum of 5% to the districts, to address their concerns, he noted that the Central Government had found innovative means of making the deductions, under the pretext of going for mass procurement.
A couple of days before he left office, then President Kufuor decided to raise the threshold from 5 to 7.5%.
For this reason, Mr. Afriyie Badu noted that the assemblies were getting between a quarter and a third of what they were entitled to.
Meanwhile, he noted that the benefits of these deductions were not clear, citing the case of buying mathematical sets.
“Seriously, if these monies had gone into specific districts, they would have found other usages,” he said.
He therefore stressed the need for the government, and for that matter, those in charge of the DACF, to go back to the basis.
“If anything at all; if government will do any deduction; the centre should be negligible, so that the bulk of the money will go to the districts, to enable district assemblies to address the needs of their constituents, including the small micro entrepreneurs.” he emphasised.
He also called for the involvement of business associations in the fee-fixing resolution process, asking for the inclusion of SMEs.
Among others, Mr. Afriyie Badu stressed the need for the government to consider reviewing the constitutional provision, which states that 30% of assembly members should be appointed, since it had a lot of implications.
If the appointment process should be maintained, he said, it would be important for the government to consider the inclusion and involvement of SMEs.
On its part, Members of the Committee called for closer collaboration to help device ways of alleviating the plight of SMEs.
The BUSAC Fund aims to make an impact by enabling the private sector, including business membership organisations, trades unions and the media, to influence public policy formulation, by undertaking appropriate research, developing evidence-based policy positions, and advocating those positions with the government and other private sector institutions/organisations which may be targeted by the action.
The Fund is accessible through a competitive demand-driven mechanism, and transparent selection of the best advocacy actions proposed by associations within the private sector.
The BUSAC Fund finances, through grants, up to 90% of the cost of the Advocacy Actions that are selected in each “Call for Application.”
The actions are then implemented by the grantees themselves, with the help of the Service Providers they may have chosen to complement their own.