Mr Kwamina Ahwoi, a Principal Lecturer of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), on Wednesday pointed out that for the decentralization process to be
effectively implemented, it was imperative to have competent, efficient, dedicated and knowledgeable district chief executives.
He said if the district chief executives who would be managing the district assemblies under the Local Government Service were not qualified
and efficient, they would not derive the needed respect from the departments that would operate under them.
Mr Ahwoi said this at a public lecture on the theme: "One-step Forward - The Significance of LI 1961 in District Assemblies Capacity
Building", organized by the Local Government Service secretariat in Cape Coast.
The lecture, which was attended by Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAS), heads of departments, chiefs, stakeholders and a cross-section of the public, was to educate them on the LI 1961.
Mr Ahwoi tasked the various district chief executives to learn more about their jobs, stressing that it would be difficult for them to work in the new system if they were not up to the task.
On the elections of district chief executives, he advocated, that only elected assembly members should be allowed to vote since they have been mandated by the people to vote on their behalf.
He said the presence of appointed assembly members during the elections of district chief executives, made such elections to appear political.
"Nomination and elections, DCEs go with popularity and that if care was not taken unqualified, incompetent and at times drunkards could be voted as district chief executives".
Mr Ahwoi advocated the process of having all the elections such as presidential, parliamentary and district level elections all taking place at
the say time.
Mr Ahwoi called for the restoration of the Ghana Health Service and Ghana Education Service to the list of departments that are to be
decentralized, adding that, decentralization was like a struggle for independence.
He called on the two main political parties, NDC and NPP to come to a consensus on the decentralization of departments such that, when one party is in power it would not be tempted to recentralize some department that had already been decentralized by an opposition party.
Madam Ama Benyiwa Doe, Central Regional Minister, said though some achievement have been chalked in the areas of the creation of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, the power of the district levelling
planning and budgeting allocation of the District Administration Common Fund (DAFC) for development purposes, the decentralization process was still
confronted with some challenges which include the dual allegiance of district level staff of decentralized departments to the metropolitan/municipal /district assemblies on one side and the regional and national headquarters on the other.
She also expressed concern about the absence of complete fiscal decentralization with its attendant implication on service delivery at the
lower level of the process.
Dr George Oduro, Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, who presided, stated that the politicization of the decentralization process would not help the nation and that consensus efforts should be made to depoliticize the Local Government Service.