MMDAs INAUGURATION ILLEGAL

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

An analyst in the local governance sector says it is illegal for government to go ahead with the inauguration of the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) today since government appointees to the assemblies have not been appointed.

George Kyei Baffour, who is a former President of the National Association of Local Government Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), said per the rules the appointment of government appointees, which constitute 30 percent of the composition of every assembly, are done before every inauguration.

The analyst disclosed this while reacting to the announcement by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) that all is set for the inauguration by President John Mahama today.

A Deputy Local Government Minister, Emmanuel Agyekum, confirmed on Accra-based Citi FM that the government was set to go ahead with the inauguration with President Mahama to enable the assemblies, which have remained dormant due to the late holding of the elections to become functional.

Some experts are of the view that the government is under pressure to inaugurate the assemblies in order to meet the deadline for the submission of composite budget for 2016.

However, Mr. Kyei Baffour, who does not appear to be enthused about the situation said, “It will be illegal for an inauguration of assembly to be done especially when elections have been conducted and the new assemblies are supposed to be put together to function and government appointees are not ready.”

He added: “That will be an illegality because the Constitution in Article 242 defines membership of a corporate assembly and that includes 30 percent of government appointees.

“Apart from that, looking at the standing orders of the house, once the assembly is inaugurated, they are supposed to elect a presiding member and elected members alone cannot elect a presiding member because that will not be the full complement of the assembly.

He said “government or the President has all the time at its disposal so why did they wait for six solid months and the appointees are not ready…so that’s a big challenge to him.”