Assemblies urged to demand accountability

Mr Bamuah Tahiru, Assistant Programme Officer for Action on Disability and Development (ADD), has called on district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to demand accountability from disability groups for their share of the Common Fund. He said the five percent allocated to persons with disabilities from the district assemblies' Common Fund and other forms of support should be audited to ascertain how those funds were utilised. Mr Tahiru made the call to mark this year's International Day of persons with disabilities in Wa on Thursday, which was on the theme: "Making the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) inclusive for persons with disability". He, however, expressed dissatisfaction about the refusal of some district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to release the funds to the disability groups that had denied them the opportunity to develop and enhance their livelihoods. Mr Tahiru called on government to come out clearly to inform disabled association whether the five per cent was to be charged on the net or the gross of the Fund. "We want government to notify us with this information to enable us track the receipt of the Fund to avoid the excuses by some District Chief Executives that the fund had not yet been received". Mr Tahiru appealed to government to separate the five percent share from the Common Fund. He commended government for rolling out the free education programme. Mr Tahiru, however, noted that as far as school structures were not made accessible to persons with disabilities, the free education programme would not achieve its desire goals. He said the building code must be enforced to facilitate the process and added that structures must be put in place to accelerate the smooth implementation of the disability Act (Act 715) at all levels. Mr Yakubu Duogu, Wa Municipal Chief Executive, said four percent of Ghana's population were suffering from disability and that issues of disability must be taken seriously. He said government would provide the necessary support to persons with disabilities to exploit their fullest potentials and urged members of the association to contribute their quota to national development. Mr Abudulai Zackaria, Chairman of the Wa Municipal Cross Disability Organisation, noted that persons with disabilities were often urged to turn their disabilities into capabilities but there were many obstacles hampering their development.