Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister of Lands and Forestry has urged staff of the Lands Commission to ensure that the integrity of land records were assured at all times.
He noted that, the land reforms envisaged under the new Lands Commission Act 2008, (Act 767) would not in itself bring the necessary change in land administration in the country, if the people involved in the implementation do not change their attitude to work and the work ethics of the Commission.
Alhaji Dauda said this when he inaugurated the Northern Regional Lands Commission in Tamale on Monday.
The 24-member Commission which was sworn into office by Justice Lawrence Mensah, the Tamale Supervising High Court Judge has Mr. Simaila Alhassan as Chairman.
Alhaji Dauda said what the people of Ghana expected was a stress-free process for registering land and asked the Commission to reduce the bureaucracy, inefficiencies and frustrations of the public.
"Failure to do this will nullify all the reform efforts irrespective of the good intentions," the Minister said.
He said land issues in the country would continue to be an obstacle to national development if the bottlenecks associated with land administration were not removed.
Alhaji Dauda noted that some of the challenges the Northern Region faced in land management was the granting of large stretches of land for commercial agriculture and the feedstock for bio-fuel production.
He therefore charged the Regional Lands Commission to provide the necessary framework and modalities for granting lands and also ensure that the rights of the vulnerable were protected.
The Minister said with the establishment of the land registry in the region, the commission should educate land owners to register their lands, adding that, in that way the Commission could help improve security of tenure of lands to attract investors into the region.
Mr. Stephen Sumani Nayina, Northern Regional Minister asked members of the commission to take advice from the technical men within the various divisions of the Commission, to ensure effective and efficient land administration in the region.
He expressed worry over the manner in which chiefs in the region were laying claim to state acquired lands under the guise of divesting lands in the Northern Sector under the 1979 and the 1992 constitutions.
He therefore urged members of the Commission to sensitise the chiefs and land owners that state acquired lands were still government property.
Mr. Nayina stated that the Dagbon crises had made it impossible for prospective developers to have title to land acquired, adding that, this had also made it difficult for them to access facilities from the banks to expand their businesses, since they could not use their land as collateral without title documents.
Mr. Simaila Alhassan, Chairman of the Commission said members would adopt a participatory approach to their work and endeavour to be proactive and contribute its quota for the attainment of the success of the new lands commission.
He said membership of the Commission would among other things ensure respect for the customary rights, provide land advisory services to traditional land owners, and ensure that their activities covered the whole region, whilst accepting the special needs of the regional capital.
He said they would also adopt the alternative dispute resolution mechanism in resolving conflicts.