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A Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (MLRD), Mr Kwasi Boateng Adjei, has charged metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the Volta Region to ensure that they are socially accountable at all times in the discharge of their mandates.
Social accountability, Mr Adjei noted, was a key tenet of President Akufo-Addo’s administration, which should be mainstreamed at all levels of governance in the country.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at Akatsi, during a recent two-day working tour of some assemblies in the Volta Region, the deputy minister indicated that ensuring social accountability in the operations of the MMDAs would engender increased grass-roots participation in the local governance system.
“The assemblies exist for the people and we want the MMDAs to mainstream social accountability in whatever they’re doing so that the people would see the relevance of the assemblies or what the MMDAs are doing for them and they will also be encouraged to support the assemblies by paying their property rates, licences and levies,” he stated.
The tour, which was the first leg of the deputy minister’s familiarisation visit to all 25 MMDAs in the region, took him to the Ho West, Adaklu, Ketu North, Ketu South and Akatsi south district assemblies, where he interacted with management and staff to assess their preparedness for the implementation of government’s flagship policies and programmes such as the one-district one-factory, one million dollars per constituency and planting for food and jobs.
He indicated that the tour was to assess the performance of the assemblies since President Akufo-Addo’s assumption of office on January 7, 2017, and how well the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) have settled in offices and assumed their duties as the President’s representative at the local level.
Revenue Mobilisation
Another key issue that cropped up at closed-door meetings with assemblies officials, according to Mr Boateng Adjei, bordered on the revenue mobilisation of the assemblies.
He said the President expected the MMDAs to adopt new approaches in raising more Internally Generated Funds (IGFs) to support development initiatives in the districts, since the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) was not adequate to finance every project in the local level.
