Mr Kwame Kenya, senior Resource Person of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), has urged government appointees of municipal and district Assemblies to educate their people on government policies and programmes and send their views back to the Assembly for consideration.
Mr. Kenya said this at a two-day Training Programme on the Decentralization concept and Good Governance for Presiding Members and government appointees from two Municipal and three district Assemblies in the Central Region at Agona Swedru.
The participants were drawn from the Effutu and Agona West Municipalities, Agona East, Gomoa East and Awutu-Senya District Assemblies.
The Workshop organised by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, was aimed at building the capacity of the assembly members to enable them to contribute effectively towards the development of their electoral areas.
Mr Kenya advised them to collaborate with their traditional authorities and opinion leaders when initiating developmental programmes to promote a healthy relationship between them and the electorate.
According to him appointees are the eyes of the government, so they should fully participate in all programmes and activities of the assembly to ensure its success. "You should therefore be role models in your communities", he added.
Mr Kenya urged the participants to utilize the knowledge and skills they had acquired during the workshop to promote the socio-economic development of the society.
The participants were taken through topics including the prescribed roles and responsibilities of assembly members, rationale for appointee members, and qualities of assembly members.
The rest of the topics were transparency and accountability, Committee systems of the district assembly, resource mobilization and generation of funds.
Mr Frederick Agyarko Oduro, Administrator in-charge of the Municipal Finance and Management Initiative of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, entreated the participants to help promote transparency and accountability to ensure that monies meant for developmental projects are not diverted.