Spread Mar. 26/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
CABINET has directed that the Draft Comprehensive Decentralisation Policy Framework developed by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development should be discussed and further improved on by civil society organisations.
The policy, which forms part of the National Decentralisation Action Plan (NDAP), will be re-submitted to the Cabinet after all partners have made their input.
This was made known by the sector minister, Mr Kwadwo Adjei Darko, when he took his turn to address the press in Accra yesterday.
He said a review committee had also been set up to look into the legal environment of decentralisation and local government reforms to address issues that had emerged with the implementation of the local government reforms.
He said his ministry together with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning had developed an inter-governmental fiscal framework which sought to address the issue of revenue, expenditure and functional assignments between national and the sub-national levels of government.
Mr Adjei Darko said for the purpose of the development of the framework, an inter-ministerial committee had been set up and a first draft of the framework had been developed and validated.
He said a legislative instrument (LI) which integrated all decentralised departments at the district assembly and regional levels into the assembly fold and the regional co-ordinating council had been produced and submitted to the Cabinet.
The LI, among other things, outlined the roles and responsibilities of each department and made the district assemblies the centre of activities at the district level, he disclosed.
He said with the launch of the Local Government Service Council in December 2007, the council and its secretariat were currently working on integrating the line departments and central government agencies into the departments of the assemblies at the district level to ensure that the assemblies had the requisite and competent staff to fulfil their mandates.
He added that with the launch of the council, over 30,000 staff had been transferred from the Civil Service to the Local Government Service with effect from January 2008.
Mr Adjei Darko said the rationale behind the splitting of district assemblies was to make the assemblies more effective, adding that in the past five months, 32 new district assemblies had been created out of which 31 had been established and another 31 raised to municipal and metropolitan status.
Chronicling some of the achievements of the ministry in the past year, Mr Adjei Darko said the ministry in collaboration with the Merchant Bank and the Jomoro and Krachi district assemblies had successfully constructed two boats to facilitate lake transportation, adding that the boats had been designed to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers.
On the District Assemblies Common Fund, the minister said the allocation of five per cent of the national budget to district assemblies had been increased to 7.5 per cent with effect from this year, in view of the enormous developmental responsibilities of the assemblies.
Consequently, he said, in fulfilment with the Internal Audit Act provisions, the ministry in collaboration with the Internal Audit Agency had established and staffed internal audit units in all ministries, municipalities, districts and agencies (MMDA).
Also an initiative to assist the MMDAs to significantly increase their internally generated funds had been introduced through the Ghana Municipal Finance and Management Initiative of the Government of Ghana with sponsorship from the Cities Alliance, World Bank and the UN-Habitat.
The initiative, he said, would help the MMDAs to identify and find ways of blocking financial leakage and improve their management and accounting systems, to be able to raise enough funds to meet the backlog of infrastructure and service delivery requirements, adequately provide for people’s needs, gain public confidence and ultimately achieve the level of being able to borrow from the capital market.
On the environment, the minister said a National Environmental Sanitation Co-ordination Council had been revived and further strengthened to co-ordinate and collaborate with all stakeholders involved in sanitation management, adding that the ministry had also revived the national Environmental Sanitation Policy, which was yet to be submitted to the Cabinet.
He further stated that a research team based in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) had been constituted to undertake research and studies into the Bui Dam Project and its impact on the environment, health and safety, the ecosystem and aquatic life with the view to improving the quality of life in the area, as well as maximise the value of any investment made in the area.
The research team, which, he said, would work closely with the Tain and Bole District Assemblies, would develop a comprehensive environmental health safety programme, undertake research and investigate environmental health and safety liabilities, as well as provide credible health and safety information.
On the School Feeding Programme introduced by the government, the minister said despite some problems, 987 schools with 477,714 pupils across the country were currently benefiting, saying that by the end of the year it was expected to cover 1,556 schools and gradually scale up to 2,889 schools with 1.4 million pupils by the end of 2010.
He said by March 2008, about GH¢24 million had been disbursed with The Netherlands government providing about GH¢2.1 million.
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