Support staff of infant district assemblies — Vanderpuye
The Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, has appealed to public-spirited individual members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to endeavour to provide accommodation and other logistical support to staff members of the infant district assemblies.
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That, he explained, was better than always trying to undermine staff members of the local government service, especially District Chief Executives (DCEs), by writing anonymous letters with the view to unseating them.
He maintained that the provision of residences for assembly workers would enable them to settle down fast in their new environment to contribute their quota towards the development agenda of the districts they had been posted to work.
Mr Vanderpuye, who made the appeal when he addressed staff members of the Wassa Amenfi Central District Assembly at Manso Amenfi, the district capital in the Western Region, recently observed that in certain areas, some members of the party did not want their DCEs and other assembly staff members to discharge their duties.
He described that behaviour and attitude as mischievous and detrimental to the cause of development of the communities, adding, "The more our own party members engage in such dirty politics, the more people lose confidence in the assembly system.
If the districts will develop, then it should come from the NDC fraternity rather." The meeting with the assembly staff members formed part of the programme drawn by the ministry in connection with the monthly National Sanitation Day exercise which the region takes its turn on Saturday, June 6, 2015.
Accompanied by the Deputy Western Regional Minister, Mr Alfred Ekow Gyan, Mr Vanderpuye had already addressed a similar gathering at Dadieso in Suaman, Enchi in Aowin, Asankragwa in Wassa Amenfi West and Bogoso in the Prestea/Huni-Valley districts.
The two deputy ministers also interacted with chiefs in those areas, where they impressed upon them to in turn prevail on their people to come out in their numbers to participate in the sanitation programme, an initiative of the government to rid the entire country of filth.
Mr Vanderpuye argued that workers of the assemblies were the basic ingredients for effective development, saying that if the fairly new district assemblies would find their feet, much would depend on the contribution of NDC members themselves at that level, if indeed they wanted the government to succeed.
Basic ingredients
The deputy local government minister, however, noted that those infant assemblies lacked adequate resources and logistics but expressed the hope that with dedication, determination and commitment to duty, they would succeed.
"Such bottlenecks should not be a hindrance to dampen your spirits but rather a litmus test for you to provide the needed service to the people. We want the new districts to succeed and develop fast," Mr Vanderpuye insisted.
The deputy minister further urged the staff members to maximise the little resources that came their way from the central government by using them scrupulously to develop the basic infrastructure that the people would need for a start, adding that they should as much as possible save the assemblies from collapse.