Mills urges Ministers to establish effective monitoring system

Koforidua, Aug. 14 GNA - President John Evans Atta Mills on Friday tasked Regional Ministers to establish an effective monitoring and accounting system to ensure that funds are managed in an acceptable manner.

"If we do not do things right and in the proper way, we must know that Ghanaians will ask us legitimate questions just as they are asking our predecessors."

President Atta Mills, who was addressing the opening ceremony of the maiden Conference of Regional Ministers in Koforidua, reminded them that power did not belong to "us the politicians, it belongs to the electorate and we must always be mindful of this fact". He urged the Regional Ministers to use the "Town Hall Meetings Approach" to be in constant touch with the people, who gave them the opportunity to serve and to build a better Ghana.

"Our mandate is intrinsically linked with our closeness to the electorate and we must never take the electorate for granted," he said. President Mills said accountability issues should also engage their attention, ensuring that assembly members and the electorate met often and assemblies took steps to publicize their activities by forging closer relations with local associations, traditional and religious leaders as well as the media.

He announced that a broad national stakeholder's conference would be held soon to review 20 years of the District Assembly System as a way of further accelerating the decentralization process. President Mills said the Government had also committed itself to reviewing relevant legislation, including the Acts relating to Local Government; Local Government Service; District Assemblies' Common Fund and Public Procurement and Internal Audit Agency.

Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, listed a number of selected programmes the Ministry would implement within the next few months to help to accelerate the decentralization process.

This, he said, would include the legal process associated with the Comprehensive Decentralization Policy, to support the Local Government Service to perform; resource the newly created District Assemblies and to see to it that the Street Naming and House Numbering Exercise is embarked upon seriously.

M Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Eastern Regional Minister, in a welcoming address, gave an assurance to President Mills that as Ministers, who represented him in the Regions, they would work hard to ensure that the Government delivered on its campaign promises. He said all their activities would be guided by the principles of transparency, probity and accountability. 14 Aug. 09