CLOSAG WANTS GOVERNMENT TO REVIEW CENTRALIZATION OF PROPERTY RATE ADMINISTRATION

The leadership of Civil and Local Government Staff of Ghana (CLOSAG) has appealed to government to review its revenue mobilization strategies particularly, the proposed ‘implementation of the Unified Common Platform for Property Rate Administration’ as captured in the 2022 Budget under paragraph 247(ii) by the Finance Minister.

CLOSAG noted it’s a fact that “The Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda” can only succeed through improved revenue generation but ought to be done with a human face.

The leadership re-iterated that the strategy if implemented would eventually lead to hardship for the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

This was made known by the Executive Secretary, Mr. Isaac Bampoe Addo in a speech read on his behalf by Bono Regional Chairman of CLOSAG, Mr. Michael Gyamfi during this year’s May Day held in Sunyani.

He noted that the implementation of the Unified Common Platform for Property Rate Administration was scheduled to take off with effect from 1st January, 2022 subject to review every five (5) years, ought to be approved by parliament.

He observed that the centralization of property rate would impair the operations of the MMDAs and drastically reduce the inflow of revenue to these institutions.

The Association is of the view that should this policy of centralization of property rate be carried out, apart from cost of engaging an agent, job losses are likely to occur for those who are engaged by the Assemblies to collect the property rate. “We would be retarding the progress of decentralization and tantamount to only paying lip service to the policy”, he emphasized.

CLOSAG juxtaposed frequency, consistency and timeous payment of property rate under current decentralized policy, enable most MMDAs provide routine services, compared to centrally collected funds such as District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) and District Development Fund (DDF) which have challenges with frequency and consistency as well as releases, thereby distorting the implementation of planned programmes, projects and policies of the various Assemblies