'L.I will give full complement to MMDAs' (Spread)

THE Minister of the Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, has stated that the most difficult part of the decentralisation process has been the decentralisation of administrative functions at the local level.
Answering questions at the ministry’s turn at the weekly Meet-the-Press series in Accra yesterday, Mr Chireh said although the programme of decentralisation was in progress, departments in the districts continued to operate under their sector ministries and agencies either from the head office in Accra or the regional level.
He said the coming into force of the Local Government (Department of District Assemblies) (Commencement) Legislative Instrument of 2009 (L.I 1961) was welcome because it was to ensure that the decentralised departments functioned under the various district assemblies.
Mr Chireh said the L.I would give the metropolitan, municipal and district assembles (MMDAs) their full complement as envisaged under Article 240 (2) of the 1992 Constitution and reinforced by the Local Government Act, 1993, Act 462.
He pointed out that the government was committed to ensuring that the decentralisation process achieved the desired objective.
Earlier, the Chief Director of the ministry, Mr D. A. Nyankamansu, who read a statement on behalf of the minister, said Section 38 (1) of the act provided that through a series of mergers, the 22 departments were to be reconstituted into 16 departments in the metropolitan assemblies, 13 in the municipal assemblies and 11 in the district assemblies.
He explained that Section 164 provided that “The Minister of Local Government shall, by a legislative instrument, prescribe the date for the coming into force of Sections 38 and 161 of the this Act”, which touched on the operationalisation of the local government system.
He also touched on the already created Local Government Service of which the staff of the newly established departments of the district assemblies were to become members, adding that members of staff working in the branches, divisions and units of the departments or organisations which had been merged shall be transferred to the relevant departments of the district assemblies and shall form part of the Local Government Service.
Mr Nyankamansu said the enactment of L.I 1961 was, therefore, to ensure the commencement of the functioning of the decentralised departments at the district level as departments of the district assemblies, adding that persons in the service of the local government system would be subject to effective control of local authorities for purposes of accountability and good governance as far as practicable.
The Chief Director said in view of the importance and seriousness attached to the decentralisation process, an inter-ministerial co-ordinating committee had been established under the chairmanship of the Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana to oversee the implementation of the key components of the programmes.
In addition, he pointed out that a technical committee/task force had commenced a ministerial realignment assignment to allocate functions, relationships, communications, responsibilities, budget, staff and logistics to the national, regional, and district levels of government.
He also said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning would develop budget guidelines for composite budgeting to be used as the basis for funding MMDAs.
Mr Nyankamansu explained that the inter-ministerial co-ordinating committee had the responsibility to monitor the progress of implementation, resolve constraints and policy issues which were linked with the programme.