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Governments must implement decentralisation policy - Kwamina Ahwoi

 A local government and decentralisation Expert, Professor Kwamina Ahwoi, has stated that the 1992 Republican Constitution of Ghana now makes it imperative for all governments in power to implement the decentralisation policy of the country.

He stated further that decentralisation was no more a government policy but a constitutional imperative and, therefore, commits every government in power to implement the policy.

Prof. Ahwoi, who is also a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), said that at a day's workshop for heads of Department of Urban Roads  and coordinating directors of metropolitan and municipal assemblies( MMAs) in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo regional capital last Thursday.

The workshop, organised by the Local Government Secretariat, was to sensitise and build the capacities of heads of the Urban Roads Department, which was now one of the decentralised departments under the Local Government Secretariat.

Prof. Ahwoi, in his address, therefore, urged staff of the Urban Roads Department, who are now under the Local Government Secretariat, to comply with the demands of the decentralisation policy because a refusal to be part of the decentralisation process by anybody or department under the Local Government Secretariat constituted a breach of the 1992 Constitution.

He noted that with the Urban Roads Department becoming a decentralised department, heads of the department are now "bosses" in their own rights and could now take decisions on their own without consulting the national headquarters of the department at the local level.

Prof. Ahwoi stated further that with the coming into force of the Local Government Legislative Instrument (L.I) 1961, what the governments needed to do was to make financial resources available for the decentralised departments to perform their routine duties and functions at the local level for the benefit of the people.

He, therefore, urged the heads of the department to prioritise their activities in order to meet the development aspirations of the people at the local level, saying, under the current local government dispensation, resources were being controlled at the local level and, therefore, the excuses that the government did not release funds for the various decentralised departments to work should be a thing of the past.

The Head of Service of the Local Government Secretariat, Dr Callistus Mahama noted that with the L.I. 1961 passed, the postings and recruitment of all staff to the decentralised departments would be done by the Local Government Secretariat.

He said the objective of the workshop by the secretariat for the heads of the department was to take them through the passage of the L.I. 1961 and build their capacities to work at the local level.

He therefore, urged the metropolitan and municipal coordinating directors to monitor the activities of the various decentralised departments and make them accountable .

The participants were taken through topics such as Decentralisation in Ghana and the Implication of L.I. 1961 and Composite Budgeting and Local Financial Management by Madam Ing. Mabel Adjaottor of the Local Government Secretariat and Mr Joseph Antwi from the Fiscal Decentralisation Unit of the Ministry of Finance, respectively. 

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