A former Minister of Local Government, Professor Kwamena Ahwoi, has called for the appointment of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) by the President of the country with a prior approval of the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to be maintained.
Prof. Ahwoi said that taking away the power of appointment of MMDCEs away from the President would not enable the central government to effectively implement its development plans and programmes through a non-partisan local governance system.
He was speaking on the political, administrative, and economic imperatives of decentralisation at a two-day National Dialogue on Decentralisation and Resource Governance held in Accra, which ended on Friday.
“As long as the current governance architecture of the country remains one of a partisan central government superimposed on a non-partisan local government system, with the partisan central government required to implement its plans and programmes through a non-partisan local government, the current situation should remain,” Prof. Ahwoi said.
According to him, the current constitutional architecture that allowed the President to appoint MMDCEs with prior approval of the MMDAs ensured that the Presidency had a voice in the local governance system.
Moreover, he said that it was important for the local governance system to remain non-partisan as it had helped in the development of the country.
Prof. Ahwoi also noted that maintaining the non-partisan system at the local level would help avoid the issue of electoral violence that was often recorded during national level elections.
Other proposals made by Prof. Ahwoi in relation to political imperative of decentralisation were the maintenance of the hybrid form of election and appointment of the members of MMDAs, participatory governance at the local level, establishment of institutions such as courts at the local level and elevation of the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCCoD) into the provision of the 1992 Constitution.
He noted that it was important for the ministers of the various ministries to understand the importance of the IMCCoD as it played an important role in the development of the country.
“Some of the Ministers think that decentralisation is the baby of the local government. What I want to say is that decentralisation is not the baby of local government. It is rather the district assemblies that are the babies of the local government,” Prof. Ahwoi stated.
Touching on the administrative imperative of the decentralisation, Prof. Ahwoi proposed the training of public officials at the local level by local government training institutions and enhancement of non-decentralisation by devolution of programmes by the Ghana Education Service and the Ghana Health Service.
He urged MMDAs to act more as facilitators than economic cooperatives by encouraging participatory planning at the local level to enable the local inhabitants to be aware of the opportunities that were available to them.
“MMDAs should also ensure that the district composite budget reflects the prioritised planning needs of the local people,” Prof. Ahwoi added.
BY BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY
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