Veep Inaugurates Local Government Service Secretariat

Accra, Aug. 7, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Friday said government would re-examine the decentralization process to make it more consistent with local level participation. "After 20 years of decentralization, it's about time to re-examine the process in order to enhance local participation in governance and decision making," he said. Vice President Mahama said this when he opened a service secretariat and a website, www.lgs.com.gh, estimated at 505,000 Ghana Cedis for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in Accra. The Local Government Secretariat (LGSS) is crucial in areas of capacity building of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) so that the rolling out of services at local levels could take place, while the internet facility would ensure wider access to information and e-services that are indispensable not only for the districts and their staff, but also for the central government, ministries, departments and agencies.

Mr Mahama said though Ghana had taken an early lead in matters of local government decentralization with the introduction of the District Assembly concept, things had not gone as expected, and that Ghana had currently fallen behind many other African countries in that regard. After 20 years of decentralization, he said, "key decentralized departments are still controlled from Accra and we still have many challenges in introducing composite budgeting". He expressed regret that some District Chief Executives (DECs) had committed themselves to contracts valued at over 800,000 Ghana Cedis, representing an excess of two years of their expected revenue from the District Assemblies' Common Fund (DACF), saying such acts pointed to a system failure.

"Lack of transparency in budgeting and disbursement of the DACF is widespread, and local people and the assembly members find themselves with very little say in the decision making process at the grassroots," he said.

The Vice President also commented on the negative behaviour of some DCEs, who according to him, behave like tin gods lording it over their districts, and said such acts impeded the progress of decentralization. He said such DCEs believed that they were only accountable to the President and not to the people in the localities they served. Sadly, Mr Mahama said, "the poor and the oppressed people and their assembly members believe same, and often call on the President to remove one DCE or another, forgetting that the constitution and Act 462 give them the instrument to hold their DCEs accountable."

He said Ghana must accelerate the decentralization process to genuinely put power and authority in the hands of the people. "The ultimate test and trust in the judgment of our people would be when we allow DCEs to be elected by them," Mr Mahama said. The Vice President noted that the lack of proper addresses and streets names made it very difficult locating and directing people to the location of the secretariat.

He charged the MLGRD to ensure that by the end of 2010, all the major urban locations across the country would have appropriate house numbers and the street names clearly labelled.

The Vice President thanked the Danish government which funded the project for also providing support for 44 district assemblies in five regions to set up district works departments which included a service delivery package such as rural roads development and the provision of water and sanitation amenities.

He also thanked the French government for assisting the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to develop a website. Nana Rex Owusu-Ansah, Acting Head, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), in his welcoming address, said the Ministry was still seeking assistance for the construction of an additional block which would cost 1.6 million Ghana Cedis.

He said the Ministry would also construct a consumer services centre for public use, particularly for persons wishing to access literature or facts about local government administration and the district assembly bureaucracies.

Mr Jan Pirouz Poulsen, Charge d'Affaires of the Royal Danish Embassy, commended the Ministry for making a headway in ensuring a sound decentralisation process, in spite of its numerous challenges. He said Denmark did not have its own decentralisation process easy either, and gave the assurance that with commitment and hard work on the part of all staff, workers and departments, the vision of the Local Government Service to become a world-class decentralised and client oriented service would be realised.

Mr Paulsen said a new programme that combined elements from the previous Danish support to the decentralisation process, and from the provision of water supply, sanitation and rural feeder roads at the district level, had been drawn up by the Danish Mission. He said in the coming years support for water supply, sanitation and rural feeder roads will gradually be phased out.

He explained that instead, financial support to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies' own development plans would take over, saying the new approach supported Ghana's own efforts to decentralise responsibility for service delivery.

Mr Paulson said the support would be provided through the newly established District Development Facility which was set up by the Government of Ghana, Canada, Germany, France and Denmark. He noted that the District Development Facility which was also a performance-based fund would promote good governance at the district level and empower districts to pursue the needs of the electorate, but indicated that the level of funding to each district would be based on performance assessment. Mr Bernard Botte, Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of France, said the MLGRD website was one of the first actions initiated under the French "Support for Decentralisation and Local Governance" project, with an objective of putting the Local Government Service on the internet map and linking it with the sites of other sectors of the decentralisation process. Mr Botte said the website was the first step, and that each district would need to be linked to the internet to render the project fully effective.