Accra, March 18, GNA - Members of Parliament (MPs) would on Thursday pay their last respect to their colleague, Mr Edward Salia, NDC member for Jirapa, who passed away last month after a short illness. A State funeral would be organised for Mr Salia at the forecourt of the State House.

Before the commencement of Public Business on Wednesday, the Deputy Majority Leader, Mr John Tia, in a statement on the floor of the House, paid a tribute to the memory of the late MP, saying he led an exemplary life.

Members who contributed to the statement from both sides of the House touched on the late MP's humility, discipline and selflessness. A minute's silence was later observed in his memory. Earlier, Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, the Deputy Ministerial nominee for Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, told the Appointments Committee of Parliament that district assemblies should be able to use information, communication technology to bring development to their areas.

He said with the use of website, a district could advertise investment opportunities and potentials peculiar to the area and projects through the use of the internet.

Mr Afriyie-Ankrah was responding to questions about his contribution to the development of the districts if given the nod as a deputy minister, when he appeared before the Committee. He said the human resources capacity of some districts needed to be built up to help in the development process because most people refused postings to these areas.

Mr Afriyie-Ankrah said and there was the need to come out with an incentive package to attract more qualified staff to run the development agenda.

He touched on the need for districts to generate funds internally through large scale farming by identifying crops which could thrive in the areas.

In response to what could be done to discourage district chief executives from preventing Members of Parliament from participating in the district tender processes by sidelining them from sitting in the tender committees meetings, the nominee gave assurance that he would help to address the problem.

Mr Afriyie-Ankrah said the Local Government Ministry had initiated many projects and was supervising many departments which were a real challenge that needed to be looked into. The nominee said a stakeholders meeting would be held to review some of the local government structures and legal instruments in order to work out a better system. 18 March 09