Local Government Service is ready for challenges ahead - Head

The Local Government Service (LGS) is prepared to face challenges likely to arise from bringing decentralized departments under the authority of the district assemblies, Mr Akwasi Opong-Ofosu, Head of the Service said on Friday.

Giving the assurance at a seminar on composite budgeting for finance officers, budget analysts and planning officers in the district assemblies in the Volta Region in Ho, he said the LGS Secretariat was anticipating challenges with the new change of making district assemblies more autonomous.

According to him some organizations might not adjust easily to the new reporting system.

Under the decentralization process, authority is being transferred from the sector ministries directly to the local government areas to speed up national development.

He explained that under the new dispensation the Ministry of Finance would allocate funds directly through the assemblies to various decentralized departments based upon the composite budgets, which also includes internally generated revenue.

Mr Opong-Ofosu said projects and programmes of the assemblies must fall within the national policy and programmes.

He said the composite budget would be implemented from 2012.

Mr Edward Oppong-Aboagye, Assistant Director at the Local Government Service Secretariat said there would monitoring and evaluation teams at both the national, regional and district levels and also that Internal Audit Agency would ensure that cash leakages were blocked.