Southern Sector Assemblies Hold Confab

THE annual mid-year review meeting of Chief Executives of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Southern Sector of the country has opened at Elmina in the Central Region.

The meeting on the theme: "Accelerating local development through performance assessment, partnerships and productivity", covers assemblies in the Greater Accra Eastern, Volta, Western and Central Regions.

It seeks to create a platform for the Chief Executives to assess the performance of their assemblies and explore ways of strengthening the decentralisation process.

In a speech read on his behalf to open the meeting, President Kufuor asked the chief executives to be alert to warning signals at flashpoints.

This will require them to exercise good judgement in order to identify what are real and what are false alarms.

He enjoined the assemblies to work seriously on their waste management collection programmes by contracting reliable waste management contractors.

He said partnership with waste contractors, should include shared rewards and burdens as well as ensuring timely payments for services provided, "In this connection, you are entreated to engage contractors who possess the best value since that is crucial in a long term relationship.

Touching on decentralisation, President Kufuor said, there had been significant achievements and mentioned the increase in the size of the District Assemblies Common Fund from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent and the creation of 32 more districts.

The creation of more assemblies, he noted, would bring governance closer to the people and stimulate growth in the various localities.

The Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, expressed concern about the low performance of the assemblies and urged them to increase their internally generated revenue to be less dependent on the central government.

Oguaahene Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, who was the chairman for the function, expressed the need for the assemblies to establish Internal Audit Units in compliance with directives by the President.

The Central Regional Minister, Nana Ato Arthur, urged the assemblies to work hard to accelerate the development of their localities in line with government policies.

Source: David Yarboi-Tetteh, Elmina - The Ghanaian Times

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