MMDCEs must fall in line with the rural development agenda

The Deputy Minister of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development Mr. Augustine Collins Ntim said he sees the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) as the fulcra of the government’s rural development agenda and would therefore not wait for their operations to go haywire before taking the necessary corrective measures.

According to him, pragmatic, prompt and workable solutions to the challenges confronting the MMDAs are consequently being developed and systematically applied to nib them in the bud. The objective is to discourage the MMDAs from citing challenges as excuses for non-performance.

Hon. David Asrea, DCE, Offinso North Addressing the gathering

The Deputy Minister in charge of Local Government, made these known when he paid a working visit to the Offinso North District. He said his visit was to formalize himself with some of the major programmes that are being undertaken by the government and their impact on the general public in the area.

Hon. Collins Ntim said the Akufo-Addo administration’s rapid development agenda, the bulk of its package of economic and agricultural interventions and initiatives find expression at the district level where actual implementation takes place. The MMDAs, as drivers of these programmes, can therefore not afford to take a back seat. They need to position themselves properly to be able to deliver, effectively and efficiently too.

He said the ministry monitoring and performance assessment programme will, no doubt, make the MMDCEs sit up and Heads of Decentralized departments kept on their toes for the simple reason of being collectively held responsible for any infractions, shortfalls or shortcomings of their Assemblies.

According to him, the MMDAs are, under the monitoring and performance assessment programme, being quizzed on some specific issues ranging from agriculture, education, health, sanitation, compliance with statutory provisions, internal revenue generation and utilization to the implementation of the government’s flagship programmes.

The Deputy Minister, who also doubled as the Member of Parliament for the Offinso North Constituency, stated that government has introduced many programmes across all the sectors aimed at improving the living standard of Ghanaians and it now behaves on the MMDAs to implement them to the latter for the desired results.

He mentioned planting for good and jobs, planting for exports and rural development, Free Senior High school, cashew planting and among others. He commended the assembly for the achievements and called for concerted efforts to do more especially in the area where shortfalls were identified.

In his welcome address earlier, the District Chief Executive for Offinso North, Mr. David Kwasi Asare highlighted some of the achievements of the assembly in the past four years. These achievements, the DCE noted cut across all the sectors of the economy such as education, health, agriculture, sanitation, rural electrification, and social amenities among others.

There were presentations from agriculture, education and health directorates of the assembly.

Chiefs, assembly members, the clergy, staff of the assembly and the general public were in attendance.