‘Coordinating directors cannot escape blame for failures’

Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has warned coordinating directors at the district assemblies that they cannot escape blame for administrative failures.

He said the coordinating director as head of administration at the district, have the responsibility to delivered quality and effective services to the people.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur gave the warning when he opened the third Local Government Service Coordinating Directors Conference at Cape Coast.

The two-day conference which is on the theme: “Effective leadership for sustainable local level service delivery: The role of the Coordinating Director” is being attended by Regional Coordinating Directors, Regional Directors for Education and Health as well as Coordinating Directors at the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur also explained that though the District Chief Executive (DCE) takes the political responsibility for success or failure of the district assembly, however the coordinating director is the one who organizes and manages the district.

He said while the DCE can sometimes be excused for non-performance because they are not specifically trained for the task nonetheless the coordinating director has been technocratic trained for the job.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur also announced that very soon the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Ghana Education Service (GES) would be migrated to the MMDAs to function under the assembly.

He said migration of the two services is part of government’s reforms to strengthen the district assemblies.

He said government intends to approve the second phase of the Decentralization Policy Framework and the National Decentralization Action Plan for implantation between 2015 and 2019.

He said some of the areas to be considered under the second decentralization policy include political decentralization, legal reforms and fiscal decentralization among others.

Mr Nii Lante Vanderpuje, Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development stated that sustainable local service delivery thrives on better and an enabling institutional environment.

He said it is for this reason that the country over the years has been making frantic effort at democratizing, decentralizing and reforming its administrative structures.

He said recent reforms and innovations in the local government system have given rise to increase citizens’ awareness, demand for their rights to participate and benefit from transparent and accountable governance.

Mr Vanderpuje also stated that the citizens at the district level continue to request the authorities of the assemblies who are the duty-bearers to address their numerous issues in sanitation, job creation, delivery of safe water, good roads, provision of security as well as infrastructure for markets, schools and healthcare.

He said for citizens living at the various MMDAs sustained access to services and facilities is an important measure of their level of satisfaction about the quality and competence leadership provided by the coordinating director and other management staff at the local level.

He said as drivers and managers of development at the local level it is incumbent on the coordinating director to provide transparent, accountable, insightful, visionary and exemplary leadership.

Dr Calistus Mahama, Head of the Local Government Service stated that this year’s annual conference is intended to discuss some of the current reforms in the local government service.

He said though the local government service has laid down standards for service delivery however the challenge has been how to implement it.

He charged the coordinating directors to provide transparent, accountable and exemplary leadership at the district assemblies.