Government has established an Inter-Ministerial
Coordinating Committee to oversee the implementation of the key component of
the decentralisation programme.
In addition, a Technical Committee/Task Force has commenced ministerial re-alignment assignment to allocate functions, relationships, communication responsibility, budget, staff and logistics to the national, regional and district levels of government.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning would also develop budget guidelines for composite budgeting to be used in roll as the basis for funding Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, while the committee shall monitor and evaluate progress of implementation, resolve constraints and policy issues linked with the programme.
Mr. Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said the Committee is under the chairmanship of Vice President John Dramani Mahama.
This was contained in an address read on his behalf by Mr. D. Yanakamansa, Chief Director of the Ministry, at a press briefing on the
commencement of operations of decentralised departments of Local Government.
The function scheduled for 1000 am in Accra started after 1200 noon because the Sector Minister was in Parliament.
The Local Government (Departments of District Assemblies) (Commencement) by Legislative Instrument in 2009 seeks to operationalise the decentralised departments at the district level as the Departments of the
District Assemblies and give the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies their full complements as envisaged under the 1992 Constitution.
The 22 decentralised departments at the district level now are to cease to exist in their present form and through series of mergers would be reconstituted into 16 departments in the Metropolitan Assemblies, 13 in the Municipal Assemblies and 11 in the District Assemblies and re-established.
A Local Government Service has been established and only waiting for commencement date to which staff of the newly established departments of the district assemblies would become members.
Mr. Yieleh Chireh pledged that the Ministry in conjunction with the Local Government Service would sustain the sensitisation support of the
staff for the decentralisation process to succeed.