Mr Alhassan Mumuni, East Gonja District Chief Executive (DCE) has said the nation’s decentralisation process mandated assembly members to deliberate and decide on what projects to be undertaken locally.
“According to the tenet of the local government system assembly members are not supposed to implement projects as has being the thinking of some members. The Assembly members rather take decisions on what sort of project to be implemented,” he stressed.
The DCE said this at a two-day workshop organised by the District Assembly and Institute of Local Government Studies at Salaga for 48 new assembly members to enable them to appreciate and understand how the local government system operates.
As part of the training the assembly members were exposed to their duties and responsibilities required of them to help develop their communities and improve people’s livelihood.
Mr Mumuni said one of the crucial responsibilities of assembly members was to support revenue collection to be able to generate enough resources to complement government’s development efforts.
With regards to information dissemination, he announced that the District would soon establish a radio station to propagate the many developments and challenged in the District.
Mr Mumuni also said the Assembly would make the observation of District Environmental Day, which falls on every first year of the month mandatory and as the sanitation component of the government’s ‘Better Ghana Agenda” to promote healthy lifestyle.
Mr Kofi Kabon, Assembly Member for Kalande Electoral Area told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that, the workshop had educated him as to how to contribute during deliberations and during Assembly proceedings.
“I have also learnt the dos and donts of the Assembly which makes me stand a better chance of working hard to serve my community and the district as a whole,” he said.
Mr Kabon said the insight on how the local government system operates had enabled him to comprehend the nations’ decentralisation process better.