{"id":149386,"date":"2025-11-23T08:55:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T08:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/149386\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T08:55:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T08:55:13","slug":"minority-accuses-government-of-violating-constitution-in-2026-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/149386\/","title":{"rendered":"Minority accuses government of violating Constitution in 2026 Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Ranking Member of the Local Government and Rural Development Committee, <a href=\"https:\/\/asaaseradio.com\/annoh-dompre-slams-government-over-failure-to-release-statutory-funds-to-key-state-institutions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hon. Francis Asenso-Boakye,<\/a> has accused the government of breaching the Constitution and the Local Governance Act in the presentation of the 2026 Budget.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing Parliament, Asenso-Boakye argued that the Budget illegally prescribes Utilisation Guidelines for the <a href=\"https:\/\/asaaseradio.com\/district-assembly-common-fund-not-a-social-intervention-programme-ipg-corrects-mahama\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF)<\/a> without following the mandatory legal procedure.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that under the law, the Ministry of Local Government, in consultation with the Ministry of Finance, must issue such guidelines only after Parliament approves the DACF Formula. By issuing guidelines before parliamentary approval, he said, the government was acting outside its legal mandate.<\/p>\n<p>He cited the recent proposal by the Minister of Finance on the new utilisation guidelines, approved by Cabinet, which includes allocations for:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 24-hour economy \u2013 25%<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Health facilities \u2013 10%<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Educational facilities \u2013 10%<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Potable water \u2013 10%<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2022 School Furniture\u00a0 \u2013 10%<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2022 Administration \u2013 7.5%<\/p>\n<p>According to Asenso-Boakye, these allocations risk centralising decision-making that is meant to be under the authority of local assemblies, thereby undermining the principle of decentralisation enshrined in the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe District Assemblies Common Fund exists to empower local communities to determine their own\u00a0 development priorities. This Budget seeks to dictate how those priorities should be funded, effectively removing local discretion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that if Parliament allows the approach to stand, it would effectively be complicit in breaching the Constitution, handing the Minister for Finance authority to dictate how constitutionally guaranteed resources are spent.<\/p>\n<p>Asenso-Boakye also stressed the broader implications of such centralisation, noting that it destabilises local governance structures and could lead to inefficiencies and mismanagement of resources. \u201cWhen local assemblies are stripped of the authority to allocate funds according to local needs, development becomes top-down, and the intended benefits of decentralisation are lost,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The Ranking Member urged Parliament to uphold its constitutional role by insisting on transparency, legal compliance, and respect for local governance.<\/p>\n<p>He called on legislators to reject any attempt to pre-empt or override the legal procedures for DACF allocation, stressing that the Minority will continue to champion lawful, prudent, and community-focused governance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe duty of this House is clear,\u201d he concluded. \u201cWe must protect the autonomy of local assemblies and ensure that every cedi allocated through the DACF serves the people for whom it is intended, not just the political priorities of central government.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ranking Member of the Local Government and Rural Development Committee, Hon. Francis Asenso-Boakye, has accused the government&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,99942,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-149386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-hon-francis-asenso-boakye","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}