Nii Armah Ashietey, Greater Accra Regional Minister on Monday urged assembly members to be humble because good governance was about modesty, transparency, accessibility and accountability to the citizenry.
He noted that it was a privilege to serve the people and therefore assembly members should set high moral standards to have the courage to
reprimand those who misconduct themselves in the operations of the assemblies.
Nii Ashietey made the call when inaugurating eight sub-metropolitan assemblies in the Accra Metropolitan Area (AMA).
They are; Ayawaso East and Central, Ablekuma South and Central, Ashiedu Keteke, La and Okaikoi North and South.
Three other sub-metropolitan areas already inaugurated were, Ayawaso West, Ablekuma North and Osu Klottey.
Nii Ashietey said decentralization was to ensure democratization of power to the grassroots by transferring planning, programming, budgeting and implementation to local levels where human and physical resources were mobilized for development.
However, he noted that most of the sub-district structures such as the town, area, zonal and urban councils on which decentralization rested, were very weak and in many places non-existing.
Nii Ashietey advised the assembly members not be carried away by the office they held and lord it over the people they were to serve adding:"refrain from hijacking the work of public and civil servants because they were full time employees of government whose jobs must not be interfered".
Dr. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, Mayor of Accra, said the success or otherwise of the AMA as the authority depended on the orientation and
support at the local levels.
He pointed out that AMA was faced with a myriad of challenges but with the implementation of the "New Accra for Better Ghana" strategy in
collaboration with the authorities of the Earth Institute of Columbia University in the USA, the AMA was in a position to address them.
Dr Vanderpuije observed that residents within the metropolis had refused to act according to old-good cherished values and tradition making them to dispose refuse indiscriminately into drains and choke them resulting in floods during the rainy season.
On development of unauthorized structures, he said; "It is sad to note that some of officials and those in leadership positions are enticed to compromise their positions and become perpetrators of the problem of unauthorized development".
He said the new vision called for a leadership based on humility, accountability and commitment to do the right things as well as being part of the solution but not the problem.
Dr. Vanderpuije called for a change of attitude to address the challenges and urged the assembly members to endeavour to resist any
temptations to lure them into acts which were against the assembly's regulations, bye-laws and vision.