PARTICIPANTS at a consultative forum on local governance have advocated a drastic reduction in the number of assembly members, who they said should be well paid.
Currently, there are 5,000 assembly members representing communities in the 170 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in the country who are only given between GH¢150 and GH¢500 based, on the financial strength of the assemblies, at the end of a four-year term.
The payment, which according to most of the participants, should be on a monthly basis, would serve as a morale booster for the assembly members to serve the communities well.
The forum, which was organised at Koforidua, the Eastern Regional Capital by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development with financial support from GTZ of Germany, brought together traditional rulers, opinion leaders, as well as former and present district chief executives in the region.
According to the participants, the large number of the assembly members, makes it impossible for them to be adequately resourced financially.
They argued that since assembly members were needed to assist in the development of the communities, the best thing to do was to merge some of the electoral areas and reduce the number of the assembly members so that one well-resourced assembly member would take care of a large area which is currently under three or more assembly members.
They also suggested a review of the unit committee concept which, according to them, was not functioning.
Setting the ball rolling, the immediate past Eastern Regional Representative on the Council of State, Mr Fred Asante, said the electoral areas should be merged and the number of assembly members reduced so that it would be possible to give them monthly salaries and end-of-service benefits.
Mr Asante, who is also an assembly member in Atiwa, supported his argument with the explanation that assembly members spent so much time at the expense of their businesses and that if they were adequately resourced, they would offer their best to help develop the communities.
His argument was supported by most of the participants.
With regard to the position of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs), all the speakers except one were of the view that the present process whereby the President appointed them should be continued.
They explained that there was the possibility of elected MMDCEs who belonged to different political parties other than that of the ruling one sabotaging government programmes.
A former Presiding Member of the East Akyem District Assembly and a strong advocate for the appointment of MMDCEs, Mr Kofi Ampofo, called for a simple majority of the number of votes to be secured by a person nominated by the President when assembly members cast the ballot on him.
He argued that the present system in which a prospective MMDCE should obtain two-thirds of the votes was not ideal since in certain instances, voting had to be conducted two or more times lasting several weeks during which affected political entities could not steer the affairs of such areas.
On the involvement of chiefs in local government, the participants were of the view that the chiefs should take active part in it and that any project or programme to be undertaken in their areas must be known to them and they must give their approval before the execution so that what the people actually needed would be provided.
According to them, in the past many projects such as markets were sited at wrong places and people did not patronise them just because traditional rulers were not consulted to make inputs.
Earlier, the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, expressed his displeasure about the creation of new districts by the previous government without the necessary facilities being provided and mentioned the Upper Manya Krobo and Atiwa districts as examples.
He said the creation of new districts was a good thing but the necessary facilities and seed money must be made available before their creation.
Mr Ampofo also called for a well-resourced Regional Coordinating Council to enable it to properly supervise the metropolises, municipalities and districts.
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, briefed the gathering on the local government concept since its inception 20 years ago and said it had become necessary to review and improve it.
He said the stakeholder meeting was also to tackle grey areas of the concept which could not be implemented due to constitutional problems and gave the assurance that the input made at the meeting would be presented to experts to see how best they could be handled.
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