One hundred and fifty-three, out of the country’s 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), scored at least 50 per cent in the 2025 Public Financial Management Compliance League Table (PFMCLT).

This was an improvement over the figure recorded in the year 2024 where only 87 MMDAs scored at least 50% in the PFMCLT.

Nationally, Bia East District Assembly ranked first with 94.50% followed by Nkwanta South Municipal Assembly with 93.50% while Tolon District Assembly placed 13th on the national league table.

At the Northern Region level, the Tolon District Assembly emerged as the best-performing assembly with a score of 86.50%, followed by Tamale Metropolitan Assembly with 83.10% and Tatali-Sangule District Assembly came third with 81.90%.

This was announced at a town hall meeting by the Centre for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA) in Tamale to disseminate findings of the Third Edition of the PFMCLT.

The meeting was also to promote dialogue on strengthening transparency, accountability and compliance with public financial management laws at the local level.

It was attended by representatives of the MMDAs, civil society organisations, traditional authorities, citizens groups, development partners and other stakeholders to discuss the findings and identify measures to improve compliance.

Mr Isaac Owusu, Senior Research Officer at the CLGA, who presented the findings during the meeting, said the national average compliance score improved steadily from 22% during the 2023 baseline assessment to 33% in 2024 and 56.2% in 2025.

Mr Owusu said the assessment measured compliance with public financial management laws and regulations rather than investigating corruption or misuse of public funds.

He emphasised: “The assessment looks at whether assemblies comply with the laws by submitting required documents on time, preparing development plans, conducting stakeholder consultations, producing financial reports and fulfilling other statutory obligations.”

Mr Owusu said the indicators used for the assessment were developed from existing public financial management laws and regulations and validated through consultations with key institutions including the National Development Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Controller and Accountant General’s Department and other stakeholders before nationwide data collection.

He said the improvement recorded reflected years of engagement by CLGA and its partners to build the capacity of MMDAs and encourage compliance with statutory public financial management requirements.

He commended MMDAs for their cooperation during the assessment and encouraged those that performed below the benchmark to strengthen compliance with public financial management regulations.