Hajia Alima Mahama
About 200 metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) who have been endorsed by their various assemblies are undergoing a four-day orientation at the Institute of Local Government Studies in Accra under the theme, “Delivering Prosperity and Equal Opportunities For All Through Effective Decentralisation.”
All the 10 regional ministers are also attending the workshop to ensure effective collaboration with the MMDCEs in implementing manifesto programmes and policies of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in all the 216 districts of the country.
Opening the workshop yesterday, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama, said the programme haf been tailored to respond to certain critical aspects of the decentralisation process, adding that the four-day workshop would cover areas such as policy and planning framework on decentralisation, financial management, resource mobilisation, procurement environment, implementation issues and local economic development.
She said it is the intention of the ministry to collaborate with other partners to continuously build the capacity of MMDCEs to position them well in providing the leadership and direction for planning, coordinating, managing and executing policies and programmes in respect of all matters affecting the people in the districts.
According to the minister, any major decisions by the MMDCEs require the approval of the assemblies, especially when they are not captured in the annual action plan; or at least the executive committees of the assemblies must be consulted when it is difficult to summon the full assembly for instance in the case of decongestion exercise.
She asked the MMDCEs to spend within the approved budget, adding that supplementary budgets could be generated to cater for unexpected expenditures or emergencies.
Hajia Alima Mahama pointed out that regional ministers have supervisory and mandatory role vis-a-vis MMDCEs and are responsible for submitting to the president periodic and annual assessment reports on the performance of MMDCEs in the region.
She said special aides to the MMDCES are not supposed to replace coordinating directors at the assemblies and are not supposed to sign official documents.
“The ministry has initiated a process of reviewing the current National Policy of Decentralisation to accommodate the new reforms and policy direction,” the local government inister revealed.
“To ensure effective delivery on your mandate as MMDCEs and as part of an improved performance monitoring system rolled out by this government, all MMDCEs in the coming days will receive reporting templates and formats to guide them in submitting periodic reports on their activities as per a performance contract to be signed for continuous monitoring,” she maintained.
She asserted that her ministry had finalised a manual on fee fixing and property rates to enhance the resource mobilisation capacities of all the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs).
President Nana Akufo-Addo is expected to address the MMDCEs tomorrow.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr