The Deputy Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Mr. Augustine Collins Ntim, has implored Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to fall in line with the Rural Development Agenda of the government.
His admonition comes from his realisation that the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) were the fulcrum of the government’s rural development agenda, and must 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 were consequently being consistently evolved and systematically applied to nib them in the bud.
The objective was to discourage the MMDAs from indulging in the practice of citing challenges as excuses for non-performance.
The Deputy Minister in charge of Local Government made these observations when he paid a working visit to the Offinso North District to acquaint himself with some of the major programmes that were being undertaken by the government and their impact on the people in the area.
He told a gathering of chiefs, assembly members, clergy, staff of the assembly, and the general public that the Akufo-Addo administration’s rapid development agenda, the bulk of its package of economic and agricultural interventions and initiatives found expression at the district level where actual implementation took place.
The MMDAs, as drivers of these programmes, could, 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, and hinted that the Ministry monitoring and performance assessment programme would, no doubt, make the MMDCEs sit up, while heads of Decentralised departments were kept on their toes, so that they would collectively be held responsible for any infractions, shortfalls, or shortcomings of their Assemblies.
According to him, the MMDAs were, 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 utilisation to the implementation of the government’s flagship programmes.
The Deputy Minister, who also doubles as the Member of Parliament for the Offinso North Constituency, stated that the government had introduced many programmes across all the sectors, with the aim of improving the living standard of Ghanaians.
He stressed the need for MMDAs to implement the programmes, including Planting for Food and Jobs, Planting for Exports and Rural Development, Free Senior High School, cashew planting among others, to achieve the desired results.
The Deputy Minister commended the Assembly for the achievements, and called for concerted efforts to do more, especially in the areas that shortfalls were identified.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) 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, such as Education, Health, Agriculture, Sanitation, Rural Electrification and Social Amenities among others.
