Kpando, July 15, GNA - Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, has said Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) who misapply and mismanage their District Development Facility (DDF) risked losing the financial development assistance.

He said this at the inauguration of eight projects funded with DDF for the Kpando District.

DDF is a donor-pool performance-based grant system where access to additional development fund is linked to cost-effective and management efficiency anchored on statutes and legal framework of MMDAs through a Functional Organisational Assessment Tool (FOAT).

The facilities Mr Afriyie-Ankrah inaugurated, costing 489,000 dollars, are pavement of Kpando Main Lorry Park, taxi rank and office area, slaughter house and meat shop, rehabilitation and construction of some structures and extension of electricity to Torkor market.

The rest are provision of streetlights, rehabilitation of refuse skips, acquisition of 10 motorbikes and improvement of access road to Anfoega Senior High School.

Mr Afriyie-Ankrah expressed displeasure about Kpando District's misapplication of the fund and appealed to Assemblies benefiting from DDF to abide strictly to conditions and regulations.

He said 134 MMDAs nationwide, who qualified under the FOAT, would receive disbursements under the DDF second year assessment with Kpando District receiving GHc 537,197.

Mr Joseph Z. Amenowode, the Volta Regional Minister, appealed to Municipal and District Assemblies in the region to demonstrate full commitment towards government's development programmes to give value for money.

"It would be unfortunate if the people of the region would be denied their share of national development due to the inefficiency and lack of commitment on the part of the Assemblies," he said.

Mr Francis K. Ganyaglo, Kpando District Chief Executive, said the Assembly was witnessing unprecedented development projects beside the DDF and pledged to work harder for the achievement of the national development agenda.

He appealed to the driver unions in the district to co-exist with one another and use dialogue and negotiations to settle differences.

Mr Ganyaglo said soon the district would be allocated a set of road maintenance equipment to enhance the capacity of the Assembly to rehabilitate its feeder and town roads.