It was the former president of United States of America, Abraham Lincoln, who defined democracy to be government of the people, by the people and for the people. Thus, people are the owners of the process of democratic governance and must fully partake in the governance process.
It is for this reason that the decentralisation concept was coined, the ability to cede governance to the basic levels of Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies (MMDAs). This is so because central governments will not be able to go to the ground to attend to issues relating to their day-to-day activities and developments. The local assemblies are tasked to present the needs of the assemblies to the central government and also maintain good governance in the localities.
The need for development at the localities is key to the overall development of the country. (Adu-Gyamfi, 2014) stated that the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the constitution was as a result of test democracy and the purpose of advancing the cause of equal opportunity, wealth redistribution and poverty reduction within the people. This is the tool for decentralisation. Without the right representation of central government at the local levels, development within a nation may be skewed to one area while poverty riddles another.
Local Governance
In 1988, the Provincial National Defence Council (PNDC) started the decentralisation process in Ghana by providing the legal and institutional direction to constitute the first district assemblies. The law was PNDC law 207 (Adu-Gyamfi, 2014). This act of decentralisation was to ensure that governance get to the population whilst development is evenly distributed across the country.
According to (Gravingholt, Doerr, Meissner, & Rumker, 2006) the decentralisation efforts rank high on political agenda of many developing countries. They continued to argue that decentralisation and democracy are closely linked. This goes to say that the more decentralised a country and its political system is the more democratic they are. And the closer they are, the more development is expected to be done in the local area as well as influencing policies in the country.
The Local Government Act 462 of 1993 gives authority and empower local government agencies i.e. district assemblies, to mobilise revenue in the form of rates, fees and fines, license, rent, among others to help finance projects within the various localities. According to (Robinson, 2003) the process of decentralisation can be categorised into three main areas: (1) Financial (2) Administrative (3) Political.
Even though all the three are important the one considered the most difficult to pursue is the financial decentralisation. The success of the decentralisation process hinges mostly on the success of the financial decentralisation. MMDAs are supposed to raise revenue to embark on development-oriented projects within its assembly.
Challenges of revenue mobilisation at the local assemblies
Political
Lack of political will is a major hindrance to revenue collections within the district. The head of the local assembly is the Chief Executive. He has the authority to lead the assembly. The Chief Executive is directly charged with the duties of the assembly which includes revenue mobilisation. There are laid down procedures to collecting revenue including legal action. In assemblies that the Chief Executive does not wield the power or does not have the political will to prosecute defaulters, revenue mobilisation suffers. Most Chief Executives are not able to do that due to political interference from the central government of political parties.
In many areas, people that default in the payment of assembly revenues are linked to political parties thus making them “untouchable”. It is this that affect the operations of the assemblies. This is the major problem in revenue collection at the local levels. Laws formatted and enshrined in the constitution are not allowed to work.
Again, one can witnessed a lot of miscommunication and tensions between community members and assembly revenue collectors. This misunderstanding can sometime result in fights leading to poor public opinion about the assembly. Already, public image about local assemblies and their revenue collection is marred and thus anything bad goes to worsen it.
Education
The major challenges in the rural areas has to do with inadequate knowledge of local assembly activities. Most people are not abreast with the importance of revenue mobilisation and the use of those funds. This makes it difficult for residents to willingly pay any dues to the assembly. There is a general perception that they do not know what the monies collected are used for. Some even allege that those funds are squandered by the assembly members. It is this gap between the revenue collection exercise and the usage that make people adamant in paying the assembly revenue. It makes people harden to the idea of assembly taxations. Ask any person in the community of the reasons for assembly revenue and you will be amazed at the responses you will get.
The laws surrounding the revenue collection by the assemblies are good but only exist in books. People are not made aware of it. Even the projects done by the assembly are not made known to the people. These days, for political correctness, the central government takes all the glory for every project in the country including even assembly projects. Many people are made to believe that those projects are funded by the loan, grants and aids received from foreign donors. They thus do not see why they must pay monies to the assemblies for anything.
Religion
Ghana is a secular state with most people relying on the protection of the spirits for their survival. Many people go to call on religious deities for help for their business and personal protection. They thus owe more allegiance to the religious group than the central and local governments. They find it difficult to pay money to local assemblies in the name of security and decent market conditions for their lives and businesses. Most people believe that they must make sacrifices to their God(s) than pay money to assemblies for such protection and provisions. Most people see that most of their monies must be given to churches because that is where their blessings come from. Most people see that they must do the bidding of their God with all the monies and this has an effect on the total revenue mobilisation by the assembly. If religion plays a key role, then it must be used to facilitate the process of revenue collections. The more one moves away from the national capital, the more rampant this issue is evident. Assemblies in those areas face this challenge more than those in the urban areas.
Cultural
In times of old, it was the communities’ responsibility to develop the community. They did not necessarily pay money for these services. They played active roles in rendering these services. In these times, things have been more formalised. There are civil servants working in these areas to ensure that security and other amenities are provided within the assembly. There are some people who are still hooked on to the old concept of communal development and thus they do not see the need to pay money to the assemblies for that. The culture of a person plays a key role in their duties and activities within the community. They are therefore not willing to spend money on social amenities that they don’t see directly.
Because their lives are still cultural, they behave in those ways that have worked for them in times past. Many still prefer the same old system especially in the assemblies in the rural areas. That is why the efforts in mobilising in the urban and metropolitan centres are far different and better than those from the rural areas. This is because those in the urban areas are made up mostly of travellers and workers who have come from different places around the country to work and live there. They understand the purpose and need for taxation. They know they have to pay to be able to have convenience of trading. They are more flexible in paying these revenues. But those in their traditional and rural towns are not like that, their view is different thus affecting the ability to effectively mobilise revenue within those areas.
The role of Political, Education, Religion and Culture (PERC) in revenue mobilisation
In order to improve the revenue capability of the assemblies both in the urban and rural areas, the challenges presented above categorised under Political, Education, Religion and Culture (PERC) must be addressed. From the head of the assembly to the opinion leaders in the communities, there must be a consented effort to ensure the right level of revenue are mobilised, its usage are monitored and presented back to the community members. Suggested solutions:
• There must be political will to enforce the laws of the assembly by the Chief Executive Officer.
• Legal means should be used as a means to properly collect revenue, if need be.
• Proper education must be done within communities to explain to them assembly project and revenue objectives.
• Regular community meetings (town hall meetings) must be organised to bring the assembly and the community closer.
• Assembly projects must be shown and explained to community members.
• Sod-cutting activities for assembly projects must be done by the Chief Executive Officer and must be non-political.
• Opinion leaders must be used in community education.
• There must be partnership with local community based radio and TV stations to educate the people.
• Revenue collectors must be educated on effective and efficient means of mobilising revenue.
• There must be a monitoring system put in place to track revenue mobilisation activities.
Conclusion
The ability of assemblies to mobilise the required revenue will be key to ensure development within the community. For the assembly to be able to do that, they must acknowledge the challenges presented by PERC and use the suggested solutions for them. The assemblies must be able to understand the community on these lines and develop more effective systems of revenue mobilisation. This will be a better way of ensuring that the assemblies are effective and efficient in their revenue mobilisation efforts and are able to meet their target. The role PERC plays can never be underestimated as previous attempts at achieving the same objectives has proven futile. This approach tackles the very root of the challenges and once they are solved, the rest will be able to fall in place.
[The writer is a tax and revenue expert]
BY DR QUAQUE MICHAEL
