Mr Theophilus Aidoo-Mensah, Gomoa West District Chief Executive (DCE), has suggested to the Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to make heads of departments, secretaries to sub-committees of the assemblies.
This, he said, would enable the heads to contribute effectively their expertise and technical know-how to the running of the assemblies.
Mr Aidoo-Mensah, who is the President of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), made the suggestion at the first ordinary meeting of the first session of the Sixth Assembly at Apam on Thursday.
He said heads of departments had a lot to contribute to the development of the assemblies, but because they attended assembly meetings only as observers and were not assigned specific roles in the assemblies, they kept everything to themselves.
He said by so doing there would be regular organisation of meetings and proper records kept.
Mr Aidoo-Mensah, an accountant by profession, was not happy with internal revenue generation of the Assembly.
He said for the first quarter of the year, the Assembly collected only GH¢30,380.79 being 21.51 per cent of the annual estimate of GH¢141,250.23, whilst it spent GH¢33,411.61 leaving a deficit of GH¢3,030.82.
He appealed to the Finance and Administrative Sub-Committee members to come out with revenue mobilisation proposals including privatisation for consideration by the Executive Committee of the Assembly.
The DCE also urged assembly members to get involved in the revenue mobilization efforts.
Mr Aidoo-Mensah said the Assembly was implementing 11 projects being funded from the District Development Facility whilst 14 projects were also being funded from the Ghana Education Trust Fund.
He said all the projects would be completed before the end of the year.
Mr Anthony Eyiah Quansah, the Presiding Member, urged the new members to study the Assembly’s Standing Order and other documents on the District Assembly concept in order to contribute meaningfully to discussions in the Assembly.