Posted on: www.dailygudeghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Monday March 28, 2011.
The issue of whether or not the executive arm of government should continue to appoint people to the various district assemblies came up strongly for debate at an Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) forum on Decentralization and Local Governance held in Accra on Wednesday.
Professor Kwamena Ahwoi, a local governance expert who was the main speaker advocated that the mandate to make appointments to the various assemblies be taken from the President and be given to the Regional Houses of Chiefs because the politicians continue to abuse the current system.
But Baba Jamal, a Deputy Minister of Information strongly disagreed with Prof. Ahwoi and said it would not be prudent to take the power away from the President, adding “the chiefs must be given the opportunity to be part of the local governance process but must not be given the power to make nominations. That power should remain with the President.”
Speaking on the topic: “Rethinking decentralization and local government in Ghana – Proposals for amendments”, Prof. Ahwoi said there should be a legislation that would also stop the appointment of Members of Parliament as Regional Ministers explaining “MPs who become Regional Ministers are rendered ineffective in either one or both functions due to geographical constraints.”
He said the 1992 Constitution’s definition of the Local government concept is vague and that has resulted result different governments applying the concept in their own understandings.
Prof. Ahwoi who is a former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development said “the concept was not clearly defined. In the first NDC administration we passed laws we felt were in the interest of local governance. The NPP also took over and passed laws based on their own understanding of the concept. At first I was of the view that the NPP was making a mistake but I have now realized that it was done in the absence of a law that properly defines the concept.”
He said there are too many Presidential ‘infractions’ when it comes to the creation of more municipalities and district assemblies even though it would not be politically ‘prudent’ to criticize the executive for doing it.
He suggested that to make the local governance concept really work, the power to create more municipalities and district assemblies should be taken away from the President and given to the Electoral Commission (EC) so that the suspicion of political interference would not be there.
He said District Chief Executives (DCEs) should not be elected but nominated and interviewed by the Public Services Commission before being approved by the assemblies adding “their tenure of office should not be fixed but should be unlimited.”
Prof. Ahwoi said the District Assembly Elections should be coterminous with that of the general elections because it is cost effective and also because during transitional periods the assemblies are rendered redundant.
He also said the political parties should be allowed to participate in the District Assembly elections so that it would bring some semblance of power sharing in the country.
He said there is always conflict between the MP and DCE because the of the insecurity in the DCE position adding “MP’s support in the constituency is never safe as long as the DCE nurses parliamentary ambitions.”
He said Presiding Members of assemblies should be elected whilst MPs positions at the assemblies should be scrapped to enable them to concentrate on the national legislature.
Prof. Ahwoi said every district assembly should have a legal department to advise it on legislations and check abuse of office, corruption and misuse of resources.
Dr. Christine Amoako-Nuamah of the office of the President bemoaned the ‘unacceptable’ partisanship in the country saying “we always pretend our democracy is doing well just because we conduct election every four years. We should stop pretending all is well with our democracy.”
Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development said any amendment in the local governance act should consider giving women more access to the process.
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