MMDAs asked to recommit to duty
Staff members of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) have been advised to re-dedicate themselves to duty to ensure developments that will benefit the people.
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"You must count yourselves lucky that you have secured jobs in the local government service and [so] you should work hard to justify your employment at the assemblies," Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), said.
Addressing a section of local government service workers at Asankragwa, the capital of the Amenfi District in the Western Region, he declared that a new wind of Local Government Service was blowing and so they were supposed to provide diligent service to the assemblies.
National Sanitation Day
Mr Vanderpuye, who was in the region to prepare the grounds for a successful National Sanitation Day exercise on Saturday, June 6, 2015 noted that some of the ‘s staff members were arrogant and disrespectful to the people they served.
Before his visit to the Amenfi District, the deputy local government minister, in the company of the Deputy Western Regional Minister, Mr Alfred Ekow Gyan, had visited the Suaman and Aowin districts to interact with the chiefs and to remind them of the upcoming sanitation exercise in the region.
At Enchi, the capital of the Aowin District, Mr Vanderpuye and his colleague took turns to address the assembly’s staff, heads of departments and the chiefs, who made a number of requests for development projects including the division of the district for effective administration.
Nii Lantey Vanderpuye therefore urged the assembly’s workers to show humility and respect to the people they had been employed to provide service to, so that they would in turn have system
"Put aside the peacock egos in you as your words can even kill the people you serve when they come to you. Respect the people you are working for because that is why you have been employed and the government is paying you, so that the people will in turn have confidence in the assembly system," he further advised.
Revenue
He observed that the attitude of some revenue staff was depriving the assemblies of money needed for development.
He explained that some of them engaged in corrupt practices and cheating by not paying back the actual monies they collected from the markets and elsewhere.
Nii Lantey Vanderpuye , therefore, urged them to be truthful about the work they had been assigned to do, adding, "The evil you do will live after you one day and the little pilfering will have serious repercussions for you.
"Some of you are bleeding the assemblies in terms of revenue generation. Staff members of the works department have not been faithful as they do not comply with the development plans of the assemblies. They are not truthful to developers by accepting fake building permits and allow unauthorised construction to go on at unauthorised places," he stressed.
Party colours
Mr Vanderpuye also observed that some of the workers engaged in politics at the workplace, pointing out that the assemblies were not extensions of party offices and so people should leave their party colours at home and concentrate on the assembly's work.
He urged them to assist the metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) to succeed but not to undermine their efforts, saying that they should eschew negative mentalities and rather work as a team in order to achieve the desired results that would benefit the entire community.
Traditional authorities
Earlier, the two deputy ministers had interacted with the Asankragwa traditional authorities, who appealed to the government to complete a water project in the town, ensure the creation of a circuit court and tackle defects on the Hiawa , which had become a death trap.