MMDAs must help address infrastructural gaps — Afotey Agbo
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Afotey Agbo, has said that the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have a critical role to play in addressing infrastructural gaps in their areas of jurisdiction.
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He said with the practice of decentralisation and local government, the MMDAs had been assigned a wide range of responsibilities, including the provision of basic social services and infrastructure.
This was contained in a speech read by the Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Djanmah Vanderpuye, on behalf of Mr Agbo, at the sod-cutting for the construction of a new office complex for the Ga South Municipal Assembly last week.
The project, which is being funded from the assembly’s internally generated funds (IGF) and constructed by the assembly’s works department, is to help find a lasting solution to the acute accommodation problems facing the assembly.
The office complex, estimated at GH¢5 million, comprises 125 offices, four conference halls, a cafeteria, an assembly hall and 74 lavatories.
Mr Agbo expressed delight that the office complex was being funded from a source other than the Common Fund or Government of Ghana project.
In the view of the regional minister, the potential for IGF as a source to finance projects had not been fully exploited.
Additionally, he said the increase in investment flows had not always been met with adequate resources for maintenance.
“MMDAs are thus faced with a financing gap that hampers their overall performance and the implementation of their development plans in particular,” he stated.
He described the occasion as reinforcing the essence for high standard of performance from the MMDAs in the areas of revenue mobilisation, fiscal discipline, transparency and social accountability.
That, he pointed out, would help to win the support and confidence of the citizenry in the payment of rates, taxes and other charges for the development of the MMDAs.
He disclosed that the Regional Co-ordinating Council would continue to support the MMDAs through quarterly monitoring exercise towards better performance in the coming years so that we would continue to meet the requirements for accessing the District Development Facility Fund (DDF) and the Urban Development Grant to undertake a lot more projects.
The MCE for the Ga South Assembly, Mr Jerry Akwei Thompson, said the temporary offices of the assembly were congested, as a room expected to house one officer was being occupied by over 20 officers from two or three departments.
He said some officers attended to clients under the tree, and in other instances, officers had to run the shift system where chairs were rotated in their offices.
“If this situation persists, how can you expect maximum output from the workers?” he asked.
He, however, saluted workers of the assembly for their dedication to work in spite of the challenges.
