ELECT CHIEF EXECUTIVES FOR ASSEMBLIES — DAASEBRE OTI BOATEN (PAGE 16, NOV 10)

THE Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, Daasebre Oti Boaten, has stated that unless metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) are elected, the country’s local government system would not yield the required results.
Daasebre Oti Boaten made the statement when he addressed a seminar on local governance, organised for members of parliamentary sub committees on Local Government and Rural Development, Subsidiary Legislation and Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs at Koforidua over the weekend.
The seminar, which was funded by the German Technical Corporation (GTZ), was to broaden the horizon of the legislators to properly deal with local government issues that would be brought before Parliament.
According to the Omanhene the current local government system which empowered the President to appoint political heads for the metropolitan, municipal and districts assemblies had alienated such political heads from the people.
He said the most worrying aspect of the situation was that because such political heads were appointed by the President, they always operated in such a way that would please the President to maintain their positions instead of seeking the welfare of the people.
“He said the people would then have to decide whether to retain them or vote them out based on their performance and that would compel them to perform creditably”.
“We have to elect MMDCEs so that any of them who would not perform to the satisfaction of the people, would be kicked out through the ballot box,” Daasebre Oti Boaten stated.
“He asked, “If the President has been elected for four years to be accountable to the people, who will decide whether to re-elect him or not taking into consideration his performance, then why should the same not be applied to MMDCEs?”
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, said Ghana had since 1988, been implementing comprehensive local government and decentralisation reforms as an alternative development strategy.
He said the decentralisation programme, which had been anchored on four inter-related areas, namely political, administrative and planning and fiscal had broadened the base of the decision-making process by providing MMDAs, civil society organisations and other stakeholders the enabling environment to provide opportunity for citizens to participate in local governance and the development process.
Mr Yieleh Chireh expressed the hope that the seminar would better prepare the MPs to deal with local government issues, and thanked the GTZ for its support.
In his welcoming address, the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, expressed regret that certain legislation had been passed by Parliament which had proven difficult and even impossible, to implement either because of policy clarity or failure of legislative drafting or both.
He mentioned legislation such as the Public Procurement Act, 2003, Act 663; Internal Audit Agency Act 2003 Act 658 and the Local Government Service Act 2003, Act 656, and was hopeful that the seminar would better prepare the legislators to deal with such issues.