The Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development and legislators have been accused of not contributing enough towards the development of local governance and decentralization at the grassroots.
A former Presiding member of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Nana Kofi Senyah the accuser, noted that after practicing local governance and decentralization policy in Ghana for 31 years, nothing has been made to ensure social accountability and development.
According to him, the framers of the 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana and the Local Government Act, Act 462 of 1993, as amended in Act 936, 2016 were so magnanimous to Ghanaians ensuring that clauses that will deepen democracy, decentralization, holistic development and social accountability were provided to enable the people to govern themselves through the structures at the sub national government level without or less political interference.
Nana Kofi Senyah however, noted that in the very recent past from 1997 to 202 legislators have deliberately usurped power at the MMDAs.
He referred to Article 252 , clauses 2 and 5 which mandate Parliament to allocate funds not less than 5% to the MMDAs and also to prescribe the functions and tenure of the common fund administrator but did not provide for MPs Common fund.
Nana Senyah also explained that Article 240 (2) and sub clauses (a), (b), (c) and (d), mandate the legislators to enact appropriate laws to ensure that functions, powers, responsibilities and resources are, at all times, transferred from the Central government to the Local government units as well as ensuring probity, transparency and accountability at the MMDAs which provisions have been flouted by the legislators and thus acting contrary to the constitutional provisions.
He said as a result of these infractions the local government system or the MMDAs are rendered ineffective and broken down as some of their corporate characteristics have been compromised by the local government ministry and the legislators.
Nana Senyah also cite situations where the Ministry of Local Government have manipulated the election of the executives of NALAG which is supposed to be the sole mouthpiece of the MDMAs adding that over the years NALAG has become a forum for partisan politics and thus proven to be insensitive and irresponsible to the plight of assembly members.
He likened the situation to the Council of State whose members are elected by assembly members in a non partisanship forum but become partisan in practice and neglect the functions and roles they owe the assembly members and the Districts.
According to Nana Senyah, the Local Government system is structured in such a manner that the assembly members must always be the centre of every policy and decision making in the MMDAs hence the deliberations, legislative and executive functions revolve around him.
With regards to usurpation of power, Nana Senyah referred to Section 6 (3) which states that “whenever a situation arises in which the Electoral Commission is unable to conduct a District level election, the President may appoint an Interim Management Committee to perform the functions of the assembly until elections are conducted “.
He argued that in spite of this provision which buttresses the fact that the law is always superior to convention, the Local Government ministry has over the years, used convention and their authority to circumvent the law for their whims and caprices.
In most cases, he said, revenues are not accounted for in the interim as audit reports are not presented to the legislators on the assumption.
“The seeming Ministry of Local Government and MMDCs collaboration has further gone to weaken the Local Government system”, he noted.
Nana Senyah also pointed out that the Local Government minister is mandated to develop model Standing Orders for the MMDAs and that Section 18 (6) of Local Government Act, Act 936 of 2016 provides that the act of modifications and amendments reside with the various MMDAS as provided in Section 17 (7) of the Local Government Act, Act 936 2016, the Local Government ministry over the years, has made amendments in the Standing Orders already adopted and approved by the various MMDAs thus undermining the authority and the integrity of the various MMDAs as most the general assembly’s functions are being displaced and placed under the authority of the MMDCES which is in total contradiction with the laws and regulations of the MDMAs.
The former Ashanti Regional chairman of the Presiding Members Association also accused the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCC) of compromising their mandate to monitor and coordinate the activities of the MMDAs.
The former Ashanti Regional chairman of the Presiding Members Association pointed to Section 4 (1) of the Local Government Act, Act 936, which enjoins the MMDAs to be a Corporate Body and ensure a Perpetual Succession in its existence while Article 113 (2) mandates Parliament to review their term of office not to exceed one year.
He blamed the inefficient implementation of the decentralization process on actions and inactions of past and present governments with the alleged connivance of legislators and cautioned the Regional Ministers against appointing persons who do not qualify to the District Assemblies as appointees because such a move could compromise the non-partisan nature of District Assemblies and thus weakens the Local Government system.
According to him, Section 5 (d) of the Local Government Act enjoins the President to appoint 30% of the total membership of the Assembly in consultation with traditional authority and other interest groups to uphold the non-partisan nature of District Assemblies yet the various Regional Coordinating Councils headed by Regional Ministers, seek to appoint party executives and ex-Presiding members as government appointees contrary to provisions of the law.
Nana Senyah has cautioned Regional Ministers not to contaminate the membership of Assemblies and thus oversee a corrupt local government system by appointing activists to the MMDAs.
He has, therefore, called on the government to, as matter of urgency, organize workshops for practitioners to positively rectify named anomalies explaining that such fora and programmes would help to educate Assembly members and correct the anomalies and strengthen the Local Government to ensure good governance at the local level and deepen participatory democracy.
E N D
