Government to deepen democracy at local levels

Dodowa (G/A), Aug 26, GNA - Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, has reiterated government's commitment to deepen local level democracy, accelerate decentralization and facilitate development.

He said government would adopt programmes to ensure that assembly members and their electorate meet often while the assemblies publicise their activities and resources they get.

The Minister was speaking at a workshop on decentralization organized by Public Agenda and the Institute of Local Government Studies to collate stakeholders' views for input into the national conference. The two-day seminar was on the theme: "Twenty years of Decentralisation in Ghana: Achievements, Challenges and the Way Forward."

Mr Chireh said recent revelations arising out of the operations of district assemblies at the ongoing Ghana @50 Inquiry hearings were a concern to the ministry adding that government would review relevant legislation to make the concept more proactive.

"To this end, local government legislations will be realigned in the light of events, clarification of roles, provision of guidelines for some grey areas that have emerged with practice and steps to provide for more horizontal and downward accountability," he said. "The review will also help to prevent conflicts in terms of the roles they play to ensure rationalization and transparency in the use of resources for the benefit of the people," Mr Yieleh Chireh said. The aim, he said, was to make the Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs) more functional to meet the needs of the people. Mr Chireh said the review would remove the challenges and problems associated with the decentralisation concept and make the local government institutions more accountable to the people they directly serve.

He said lack of adequate human resource was a major problem and noted that the Institute of Local Government Secretariat would be strengthened to enable it effectively conduct monitoring activities. Mr Chireh listed a number of programmes the ministry would implement within the next few months to help to accelerate the decentralization process.

These would include the legal process associated with the Comprehensive Decentralization Policy, to support the Local Government Service to perform, resource the new district assemblies and to see to it that the Street Naming and House Numbering Exercise is embarked upon seriously.

The Minister said a multi-stakeholder conference would be held to deliberate on how to make the country's decentralization system work more effectively.

Stakeholders identified the overbearing role of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCE's) as a key challenge of decentralisation and local governance.

They said Executive interference in the disbursement of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and the re-centralisation of procurement at decentralised levels through the passage of the Public Procurement Act 663, were other bottlenecks in the decentralisation process. There were also questions about the processes involved in the confirmation of MMDCE's, the effects of regime change, which sometimes brings about revocation of the appointments of government appointees and undue interference by political party agents.