An ex-MP for the Madina constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Alhaji Amadu Sorogho, has accused the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) of shortchanging the various Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

According to him, the government has not made any payments into the Common Fund for the past year.

“To date, we do not know where the money meant for the Common Fund has been deposited by the government,” he alleged.

He said the lapse by the finance minister has rendered the MMDAs useless.

“Many of the Assemblies have not been working because the statutory payments have not been made after the collection of taxes in the country,” he bemoaned.   

He said per the law, the government is obliged to make these payments into the Common Fund after the collection of taxes.

Alhaji Amadu Sorogho stressed that these payments are supposed to be made quarterly but observed that none has been made for the past year.

Because of this, he noted that many of the Assemblies across the country cannot maintain their roads and other infrastructure.

The former NDC MP, who was a former Board Chairman of the Ghana National Fire Service, made this allegation on Accra100.5FM’s morning show Ghana Yensom on Monday, 8 November 2021.

He told host Kwame Appiah Kubi that it is the reason the La-Nkwantanang Municipal Assembly has not been able to maintain the Danfa-Otinibi road since its construction in 2008, a situation he noted that forced the current MP, Mr Francis-Xavier Sosu, to lead a demonstration in the area some two weeks ago, for which he is being sought after by the police.

He said if the government had been swift in paying the Common Fund, the Assembly would have been in a better position to do a periodic maintenance of its roads and infrastructure.