Accra, Feb. 26, GNA- Parliament on Thursday approved the sum of 306.5 billion cedis for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for the 2004 fiscal year.

This was after the sector Minister, Mr. Kwadwo Adjei-Darko had moved a motion for the approval of the sum, which was seconded by Mr. Gabriel Amoah, Chairman of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development that considered the Ministry's budget.

The total allocation to the Ministry has a donor component of 134.4 billion cedis and a government of Ghana contribution of 172 billion cedis.

The allocation is for the Medium Term Expenditure Framework for the Ministry and three departments under it. These are the Department of Parks and Gardens, the Births and Deaths Registry and the Department of Community Development.

Presenting the Committee's Report, Mr. Amoah said, "for the 2004 fiscal year, the Ministry will continue to pursue policies aimed at further deepening the decentralisation process and improving the involvement of the general citizenry in the process of governance." He said the Ministry would improve the human resource and institutional capacities of all levels of decentralised government machinery.

Mr. Amoah said the Ministry would operate the Local Government Service Act through the setting up of the Local Government Service Council and establish the National Decentralisation Secretariat to service the inter-sectoral committee and the Presidential Advisory Council.

"As a further step in the fiscal decentralisation, preparation of the district composite budgets would be completed in three districts namely, the Dangme West, the Dangme East and the Akuapem North." "Under the District Capitals One Project, the construction of 1500 household toilets at Ejura Nkoranza and Kintampo would be completed," he added.

The Committee chairman said 500 environmental officers would be trained to strengthen the environmental sanitation capacity of districts assemblies.

"The public park concept will be introduced in all districts to promote eco-tourism and generate revenue."

Mr. Amoah said under the District Town Three Project, improvement to school, clinics and water supply systems in 27 towns within 10 districts in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions would be carried out. The Chairman said the "committee was not happy with the community-based initiatives earmarked for this year by the Ministry because they have appeared in the Ministry's budget for years.

"To the considered view of the Committee the programmes earmarked for this year have the impression of a ritual because they have run for more than three years."

"It noted that the roads to and in the Aburi Botanical gardens have still not been repaired due to the delay in award of contract and release of funds."

"It further observed that due to the delay, the cost of the project has risen from 300 million cedis to 900 million cedis," Mr. Amoah said. On sanitation, he noted that the Ministry still relied on landfill site for the disposal of waste when it could "conveniently develop biotechnology, which could produce biogas for use by our industries and fertilizer for agriculture."

The Committee further noted that like previous years, the Ministry has allocated 5.3 billion to the disposal and collection of solid waste in Accra, Kumasi and Secondi-Takoradi.

On Birth and Deaths Registry, the committee observed that the registry was confronted with problems of accommodation, staffing and transport and recommended that the district assembles provide support to ensure proper data collection on births and deaths.

The Committee also called for the training of personnel for the department of Community Development, saying that they needed staff strength of 1,500 to carry out their mandate.

The committee further recommended that the Ministry review its activities with regards to the poverty reduction strategy and the Local Government Service Act to ensure that completed projects were not repeated in next year's budget.

The Minister, Mr. Adjei-Darko, presenting justification for approval of the Ministry's budget, said there would be a clarification this year of the functions of the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.

Other activities include capacity-building and human resource development activities.

Mr. Modestus Ahiable, NDC-Ketu-North in supporting the motion, said it was wrong for the Ministry to continue to include old programmes, which had not been worked out in this year's fiscal estimates since it has become a sort of ritual.

He called on the Ministry to expedite action on the operations of the Local Government Service Act to ensure a sustained decentralisation programme.

The First Deputy Speaker, Mr. Freddy Blay, in his contribution, said sanitation should not be left to the districts assemblies but that Ministry should lead in the fight against filth in the country. Alhaji Mohammad Abah, NDC-Chereponi, touched on the need to build the manpower capacity at the local level since most assemblies lacked skilled staff.

Mr. David Mensah, NDC-Atebubu North, called for the involvement of traditional rulers in local governance and called for the strengthening of revenue collection in the districts.

Mr. Sampson Darkoh, NPP-Ga North said it was important that parks were developed to help the youth involve themselves in recreational activities.