ASSEMBLY MEMBERS MUST BE RESOURCED — MINISTER (PAGE 16, NOV 17)

The Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Eric Opoku, has observed that not until assembly members are resourced and rewarded, the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies cannot play the role that will accelerate development in the country.
According to Mr Opoku, he found it difficult to understand why assembly members who represented the legislative arm of government in their respective areas, “have been asked to wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ before they were rewarded for their contributions to national development.
The Deputy Regional Minister made the observation when he addressed the Brong Ahafo Regional Consultative forum for the acceleration of decentralisation in Ghana, which was attended by stakeholders in local governance and rural development in Sunyani.
It was aimed at soliciting views and concerns for consolidation, acceleration and deepening of decentralisation in Ghana.
The participants included District Chief Executives (DCEs), District Co-ordinating Directors, heads of departments, representatives of political parties, heads of tertiary institutions, religious leaders, presiding members, nananom, representatives of women and youth groups as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
Mr Opoku noted that the effective and impressive performance by the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) was contingent upon the assembly members who provided the link between the people at the grassroot and the assembly.
He explained that at the local level, “All those who work for the executive arm of government are well resourced and catered for. Those in the judiciary are also given what should be given them and therefore, they are able to perform well”.
The Deputy Regional Minister pointed out that decentralisation policies aimed at enhancing local government administration in Ghana had been a central part of public policy-making.
However, he said, unlike past policies, the current district assemblies’ concept, which was established by PNDCL 207, expanded the frontiers through the creation of 110 district assemblies, and that further progress was made with the enactment of the Local Government Act of 1993, Act 462.
He said it was an undisputable fact that there had been seminars, workshops, retreats, focused group discussions, brainstorming, sensitisations, orientations, consultations, expert and technical advice on decentralisation policies in Ghana.
“This is a desired platform for views and concerns expressed, co-ordinated and compiled, to be factored into the policy review process,” he explained.
According to Mr Opoku, the inability of the present process to fully meet the expectation of most stakeholders had brought about the relevance of the regional fora to fill the inadequacies, and therefore, commended the MLGRD for undertaking the bold initiative to take a second look at the decentralisation process after it had been practised for the past 20 years.
The Deputy Regional Minister also observed that Ghana’s decentralisation policy had been hailed as one of the best initiatives to deepen grassroot participation in the decision-making process, adding that at the onset of the programme the basis for the policy was devolution of power to the door steps of the people.
He emphasised that the interest in the policy was more of economic emancipation for the districts to become self-reliant in determining their development agenda but noted that for some reasons, politics took the better side of the implementation of what had been described as “ one of the best political systems at the local level”.
Therefore, he said, the decision to review the programme after 20 years of implementation was laudable, saying however that, “Our worry is that, any time there is talk about the review of the decentralisation policy, what immediately comes to mind is the election of DCEs”.
Mr Opoku indicated that the core problems associated with the policy went far beyond the election of DCEs, and that the decentralisation process attempted to focus on the bottom-up approach rather than a top-down exercise to development.
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Yieleh Chereh, said the review process was to ensure that resources were judiciously used.
He said decentralisation basically meant that the various communities had access to education, health, cleaner environment, potable water, sanitation, among other social amenities, adding that, those countries, such as Malawi and Uganda, which came down to study Ghana’s decentralisation policy had gone past the country.
He said, it was therefore, imperative that the government made a wider consultation with all stakeholders towards a review of the process, saying that political parties, the national house of chiefs, NGOs, CBOs and private individuals were all to be contacted to make their inputs.