The District Assemblies are a central instrument in the implementation of all development priorities at the sub-national level. The local government system consists of a four-tier Metropolitan and a three-tier Municipal/District Assemblies Structure. The District Assemblies are either Metropolitan (population over 250,000), Municipal (population over 95,000) or District (population 75,000 and over). The 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, in Article 240, tasks them, the local government authorities to plan, initiate, co-ordinate, manage and execute policies in respect of all matters affecting the people within their areas. The planning and budgeting cycles at the district and regional/national levels were not linked. The procedures and timelines did not in any way establish a framework for integrating the district level annual planning and budgeting process into the national and regional level processes.