Vice-President inaugurates new Local Govt Service office
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has inaugurated a new and permanent office structure for the Head of the Local Government Service (LGS) and called on local government institutions to fashion effective and efficient strategies to mobilise resources, plug leakages and ensure fiscal discipline in the use of the scarce resources available to them
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In that regard, Dr Bawumia urged the service to aggressively leverage technology in transacting its official business.
The Vice-President, who was speaking at a ceremony in Accra yesterday to formally inaugurate the building said with the new edifice, it was time for the LGS to rebrand itself and project a new image to provide excellent services.
These, he said included strengthening local government structures, instituting time-tested systems and processes, adopting modern practices in human resource selection, retention and capacity development and improving the overall administration of the decentralised local governance system in the country.
The edifice
The 5-storey office
The five-storey, GH¢30million edifice of the LGS, which was constructed within 20 months, has 40 office accommodation.
Other facilities are a 600-seater capacity auditorium, a board room, two general conference rooms, a library and a terrace.
Dr Bawumia said governments over the years had made significant strides to bring governance closer to the citizenry, particularly with the establishment of the LGS.
To that end, he said the creation of the six new regions and 45 new Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) by the current government had further entrenched the course.
He, therefore, commended the current Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Dan Botwe for the feat.
Vice-President Bawumia said the establishment of the service had ensured that public officers working at the local levels were answerable to the local government authorities and that was to promote accountability and facilitate development in the quest to improve the livelihoods of citizens.
“The enactment of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936) has further strengthened the MMDAs to effectively play this function and take charge of the development agenda of our various communities,” the Vice-President added.
Project financing
Commenting on the financing of the office project, he said coming entirely from Government of Ghana’s coffers despite the economic challenges was a clear demonstration of the government’s unalloyed support and commitment for local government administration.
Dr Bawumia, therefore, urged the head of the service, his management team and the entire staff of the office to work assiduously to broaden the horizon and blaze the trail in local government administration as dividend of the monumental investment by the nation.
A Minister of State at the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Local Development, Osei Bonsu Amoah, observed that one of the major challenges of the service had been to operate from limited office accommodation over the years.
The Head of the LGS, Dr Nana Ato Arthur, expressed appreciation to the administrator of the DACF, Naa Torshie Addo and her office for her courageous decision to fund the project.
