John Victor Mensah

Decentralisation,revenue Mobilisation and Development in Ghana: Fiscal Decentralisation and Local Revenue Mobilization for Community Development in the Gomoa West District of Ghana John Victor Mensah

The book examines the fiscal decentralisation policy in Ghana and explores opportunities for generating resources locally for development. Gomoa West District, a sub-national government structure in the Central Region of Ghana, was used as the social laboratory. The book shows that some districts in Ghana are financially under resourced and overly depend on central government transfers which is often erratic and fraught with managerial problems. Opportunities exists in such districts for expanding tax coverage and generating revenue locally. However some of the districts are faced with problems of revenue administration including logistics, personnel,low motivation and revenue leagues. Concerted effort is needed in areas of tax administration,capacity building,law enforcement and review of indicators in the formula for allocating the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF)to the districts in Ghana. Such review should be pro-poor based and geared towards addressing development gaps among the districts in Ghana, particularly development needs of resource-poor districts including the Gomoa West District. The book is recommended for everybody interested in local governments financing.