AMA's problems are due to type of governance

The Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu on Saturday observed that the problems of Accra Metropolis is due to the system of its governance.

He, therefore, called on participants at a two-day seminar on metropolitan governance in Ghana to come out with 'down to earth' proposals for dealing with the seemingly ungovernable nature of the city.

The Minister said in an address read for him at a seminar organised by the ministry in collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Institute of Local Government Studies and funded by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation at Cape Coast.

It is being attended by members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government and Rural Development, Members of Parliament from both majority and minority sides, key administrators from the ministry, public service providers including those from security and representatives from the Kumasi and Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assemblies.

The seminar is under the theme "Accra Today and Tomorrow" and aims at examining problems of metropolitan governance, using the (AMA) as a case study.

It will seek to identity issues, derive lessons, distinguish between legislative and administrative requirements and propose action that may be considered by the Kumasi and the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assemblies.

The Minister was not happy that the three Metropolitan Assemblies are treated like any other district, which he said is unfair saying that there is the need to classify their chief executives into a different category.

Mr Baah-Wiredu advised the participants to come out with recommendations to guide policy makers in the city.

He also urged them to come out with 'prescriptions on how to govern Accra more effectively, how to increase revenue for the metros, how to deal with the problem of sanitation and the constant floods'.

The Minister assured them that the findings and recommendations would be submitted to the Cabinet so that the necessary legislative backup would be given for its implementation.

Chairman of the Select Committee who is also the Member of Parliament for Bosome-Freho, Mr Gabriel Amoah was of the opinion that at the end of the seminar, participants would be able to come out with recommendations that would help address most of the problems identified with the metropolitan assemblies.