Public have no trust in the Lands Commission- Minister

Sunyani (B/A), April 18, GNA- Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, on Tuesday attributed the multiple sale and allocation of land by traditional land owners to the mistrust and lack of confidence of the public in the administration of the Land Commission.

"The land agencies are often accused of corruption, arrogance, inertia and un-professionalism", which he said had contributed to the introduction of land guards, litigation and sometimes loss of lives and properties.

Mr Baffour-Awuah said this in a speech read for him at the opening of the 2008 annual conference of the Land Commission in Sunyani. The four-day conference is on the theme "Achieving the goals of the citizens' charter - A challenge for Lands Commission".

The Regional Minister explained that the unpleasant perception of the general public about the Commission had also been compounded by the activities of fraudsters, land contractors and estate agents of dubious character, who had found their way into the land market and administration in the country.

Mr Baffour-Awuah stressed that the Commission was mandated to manage public lands, monitor developments to ensure conformity with approved planning schemes and the prevention of encroachments. He said the government acknowledged and appreciated the problems and challenges in the land sector, that were hampering the country's socio-economic development hence the launch of the citizens' charter for the Commission in October last year.

"The citizens' charter is a tool for facilitating the delivery of services to citizens with specified standards, quality and time frame with commitment from the organizations and their clients", the Regional Minister added.

Mr Baffour-Awuah said the citizens' charter should inspire the Commission and its workers to strive at attaining the optimum efficiency and effectiveness in the administration and management of public and other lands through a robust land service delivery. He challenged the Commission to take steps to ensure sustainable management and development of land, accelerated service delivery to the public and to adopt market approach to land management and development. Mr Euslace Kumi-Bruce, Chairman of the National Lands Commission explained that land was a vital and delicate resource on which the livelihood of mankind depended.

He noted that the unhealthy competition for land and the seemingly weak institutions involved in land administration had resulted in the number of land administration problems confronting the country. The national chairman mentioned lack of planning schemes and development control, obsolete operating procedures, low level of adherence to planning, inadequate land records and other regulations as some of the major problems facing the sector. These, Mr Kumi-Bruce noted, when not addressed posed a threat to rapid urbanization that also had serious implications for the management of cities and towns. He called for closer collaboration and coordination of all the land sector agencies as well as other stakeholders like traditional leaders, district assemblies and the judiciary towards dealings with land administration problems in the country.

Alhaji Hamidu Ibrahim Baryeh, Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission said, the Commission was focusing on staff attitudinal change, improvement in working conditions, effective monitoring mechanisms and computerization of land records to help improve on service delivery. He said the Commission acknowledged that dependence on donor funding alone could not completely address the key issues and had undertaken a number of projects to revamp its operations.

These include funding from internally generated funds of the Commission towards the construction of deeds registries in Ho, Cape Coast, Tamale and Sunyani to help improve record management, he added. He said the Commission had also developed a modern geo-information systems laboratory that had been equipped to start scanning all the central records, convert the manual registers into digital formats as well as purchasing a generator to address the frequent outages that interfered with its operations.

Alhaji Baryeh said since the Commission was committed to supporting the government at all times, there was the need for a high dose of political support to enable it to confront issues like wanton encroachment on public lands, frivolous court suits and haphazard development in all parts of the country.