A pattern emerging from field inquiries and beneficiary testimonies gathered by DisabilityNewsGH.com across a number of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) has uncovered a chaotic, unregulated, and arbitrary tax regime governing the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) allocated to Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
The Assemblies are reportedly deducting widely disparate percentages from approved disability funds — ranging from zero per cent in some assemblies to as high as 7, 10, 20, and 26 per cent in others — under the blanket justification that such deductions are statutory requirements configured into the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
In some Assemblies, the practice has extended to even food, water and transportation support meant for Persons with Disabilities.
Among the MMDAs cited by beneficiaries are Korle Klottey in Greater Accra (20%) and Wassa Amenfi Municipal in the Western Region (26%).
Officials in some MMDAs reportedly justify the deductions by classifying all support as taxable, a classification disability activists say is unlawful as the DACF for persons with disabilities is a social protection grant, not income or payment for services.
Beneficiaries who spoke to DisabilityNewsGH on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation described the practice as punitive and exploitative.
Public scrutiny first intensified after DisabilityNewsGH exposed the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly (ASHMA).
During its May 8, 2026 disbursement, ASHMA deducted a flat 7 per cent “tax” from 39 beneficiaries — a practice that was never announced and remained secret until this portal intercepted internal documents detailing the deductions.
Why This Has Remained Hidden For Years
The architecture of the Disability Fund makes the theft invisible. Beneficiaries are never told how much the Fund Management Committee actually approved for them.
Those approved for equipment are simply called to come for items. Those approved for cash are called for cheques, without being shown their approval letters or amounts.
With no baseline to compare, a beneficiary approved for GH₵5,000 and given GH₵4,650 has no way of knowing GH₵350 was shaved off, and leaves thanking the assembly, unaware a percentage of their grant is already gone.
The Great GIFMIS Lie: Deductions Done Outside The System
There is now real doubt about whether assemblies are even using the GIFMIS system for these deductions at all.
From every indication, these deductions are being done outside the system — manually calculated and shaved off by finance officers before payment — yet justified as “automatic GIFMIS deductions.”
For equipment support, there is no indication that procurement is done via GIFMIS. Field findings show two illegal methods are being used:
1. Vendor Contracting: Some assemblies, in violation of the disability fund guidelines, contract vendors to supply items. Instead of deducting withholding tax from the vendor’s profit margin as required by tax law, they deduct it directly from the persons with disabilies’ allocated fund.
2. Direct Procurement: In districts like Ashaiman where the procurement officer and the Fund Management Committee undertake procurement directly as stipulated by the guidelines, they still deduct the supposed tax from the fund before going to the market to purchase the items.
In both cases, the beneficiary bears the tax burden, not the vendor or the Assembly.
This defence collapses under basic scrutiny:
1. The Lack of Uniformity: GIFMIS is a centralised platform administered by the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD). If central government had configured GIFMIS to tax disability disbursements, the deduction rate would be uniform and identical across all 261 assemblies.
2. The Discretionary Dilemma: Why are deduction percentages left to the arbitrary whims of individual municipal finance officers — varying from 0% in one district, to 7% in Ashaiman, to 10%, 20% and 26% in others — if it is truly an automated central system?
3. Outside The System: If deductions were genuinely statutory GIFMIS charges, they would reflect on official GIFMIS payment vouchers and GRA tax certificates. Sources indicate no such official receipts are issued, suggesting the monies are retained internally at the assembly level.
Breaking the Law: L.I. 2116 Regulation 12(1)
Legal analysts and disability advocates emphasise that these arbitrary deductions directly violate the statutory architecture established by Parliament.
Under Regulation 12(1) of the Local Government (District Assemblies Common Fund) Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2116), the law explicitly prescribes that the allocation to Persons with Disabilities shall be applied solely for the purpose of supporting persons with disabilities.
Subjecting targeted poverty-alleviation grants — designed to purchase crutches, wheelchairs, or establish petty trading kiosks — to corporate withholding taxes defeats the primary humanitarian purpose of the fund.
When an assembly deducts 20 per cent from a GH₵5,000.00 grant approved for a wheelchair user to stock a provisions shop, it deprives that citizen of GH₵1,000.00 in working capital.
Mounting Demands for National Action
With complaints multiplying across all 16 regions, disability activists say a formal, binding determination from the Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund and the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority on the tax-exempt status of social intervention funds has become unavoidable.
This comes on the back of the DACF Administrator’s September 14, 2026 directive, which gave Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives a 30-day ultimatum to reconstitute their Disability Fund Management Committees and warned of personal liability under the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) for administrative overreach.
The question for the DACF Secretariat, the GRA, and the Controller and Accountant-General is now straightforward: will they issue a clear, nationwide directive ordering an immediate halt to all tax deductions from the Disability Fund?
SOURCE: DisabilityNewsGH.com
