No decision on election of DCEs
A deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, has noted that though the issue about the election of District Chief Executives (DCEs) cropped up during consultation meetings in eight regions on the decentralisation policy, no concrete decision has been taken, and that a special panel has been set up to study the issue.
“The jury is out, and we are still consulting the people. We don't want to pre-empt what is going to happen,” he said in a response to a question as to whether the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government would promulgate that DCEs should be elected.
According to him, the fifteen political parties in the country, including the NDC and the main opposition party, the NewPatriotic Party (NPP), would fully participate in the discourse.
Addressing the press yesterday, under the theme, “Twenty years of decentralization and Local governance in Ghana,” the Deputy Minister stated that despite the fact that the assembly concept had yielded various results, achievements, and experiences for Ghanaians of all walks of life, there was the need to improve the capacities of the assemblies for service delivery, broaden horizontal and downward accountability, operationalise the sub-structures and deepen citizens' participation.
Mr. Afriyie-Ankrah noted that the national stakeholders conference, with the representatives of the political parties, will specifically, “reflect on the performance of the assembly system over the past decades, especially in relation to the right and participation of the ordinary Ghanaian, the achievements, the lessons, and the priority areas for reform, to examine the interpretations of the concept of decentralisation, the issues that have arisen in the different sectoral approaches to its operationalisation, and also to generate positions for the way forward, as contributions to the national stakeholders consultation.”
According to him, though the focus of the meeting would be on reforming decentralisation in the foreseeable future, efforts will also be made to distill issues for proposed legislative and constitutional reform.
Mr. Afriyie-Ankrah believes that effective, pro-poor local governance should have a national character, and be based on consensus, saying, “It is therefore expected that the meeting will elicit recommendations that have the national interest in mind, on how to proceed towards an efficient and sustainable local development.”
In anticipation of the national conference, the Minister averred that areas that will come up for review include the state, size and performance of the local government sub-structures, accountability of chief executives and appointed members to the people of their jurisdiction, the application of the District Assemblies Common Fund, relations between various actors in the assembly system, and equipping assembly members to perform their feedback consultations.
He said even though the 1992 Constitution had made political and administrative decentralisation imperative, the nation had come to realise that there was the need to clarify and agree on our interpretation of the concept.
To this end, he said, “We are aiming for multi-partisan consensus on this, so that any reforms that will be agreed upon, will be carried on, irrespective of the political tradition, for us to reflect on the changing national and international socio-economic, technological and political environment, and the implications for local level development.”