An amount of GH¢426.300,332 has been released by the Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs). Members of Parliament (MPs) and people with disability have also benefited from the amount, which represents disbursement for the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first and second quarters of 2012. Taking his turn at the meet-the-press series in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, said the 2012 proposed formula for the disbursement of the fund had been approved by Parliament. The new formula has made provision for the newly created MMDAs. The DACF is a pool of resources created under Section 252 of the 1992 Constitution in which a minimum of five per cent of the total national revenue is set aside to be shared among all MMDAs in Ghana with a formula approved by Parliament. Ghana’s development at the local level revolves around the fund, as it is released to the assemblies to support their internally generated revenue for development. Touching on a number of social interventions made over the past years, Mr Ofosu-Ampofo stated that 30,993 people had so far benefited from the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Project (LESDEP) which was created to provide vocational and entrepreneurial skills for the youth, including the disabled. The Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP), established with the support of the World Bank in 2010, is being implemented in 40 districts. He stated that under the GSOP, GHc1,116,450.94 had been transferred to 22,873 poor people, while 25,373, both skilled and unskilled, had been employed under the project. A US$175 million Local Government Capacity Support Project (LGCSP), also being implemented with support from the World Bank under its International Development Assistance (IDA), is ongoing. So far, GH¢39 million had been mobilised and transferred to 30 metropolitan and municipal assemblies, he said. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said under the district-wide assistance project, 44,459,401.31 Canadian dollars had been disbursed to support the budgets of assemblies in the three Northern regions to implement their medium-term development plans and annual action plans.