Land management in Ghana to be computerised

A comprehensive systems analysis inventory of the Lands Commission has been taken to facilitate the computerisation of land management in the country.

A computerised Lands Commission Management Information System (LCMIS) would soon be in place, Mr Hamidu Ibrahim Baryeh, Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, told an annual review meeting being attended by 40 officers of the Commission on Tuesday at Sogakope, in the Volta Region.

The system would automate some of the public land management functions including rent assessment, billing, and recording of payments and consent processes.

It is also envisaged that all the relevant land documents would be scanned for storage under the system.

Mr Baryeh said consultants have recommended that the LCMIS be developed on an industry standard software platform, such as Oracle, adding the report of the consultants had been forwarded to the Sector Minister for approval for work to commence on the project.

On revenue generation, he said a new separate revenue unit was being created within the Greater-Accra office, which would be provided with the full complements of staff and logistics and would be responsible for all rent administration issues.

He said the unit would be replicated in Sekondi and Kumasi, where state land and vested land rents featured prominently in revenue generation.

Mr Baryeh said the Commission would have to go beyond the plotting of land documents, consent and concurrence processing, which had engaged "our time" for so long.

"We must begin to define pragmatic strategies to carry out some of our other mandates that we have left largely unattended to since the passage of the Lands Commission Act in 1994," he stressed.

Mr Baryeh said the Commission was obliged to actively participate in land title registration in the country, which was mandatory, adding, "so far the modalities for performing this role had not been clearly defined".

He reminded the participants that their focus for the year was to restore public confidence in their work through focused improved service delivery.

During the five-day review meeting participants would deliberate on proposals for 2003-Policy Directions and Operations, National Report, Presentation of Regional Reports and would take a field visit to the Keta Sea Defence Project Site.