There is no gain denying the fact that the decentralization concept would be meaningless without grassroots participation. Without the work of Assemblymembers and their unit committees taken seriously, then the local governance system will continue to be a theoretical concept rather than a practical one, says the Ghana Association of Assemblymembers (GAAM), in the Upper East Region.
According to GAAM, since the implementation of the concept of substructures in the 1990s in the form of Urban, Town, Zonal, Area Councils and Unit Committees across the country, very little has been done to resource assemblymembers.
Given that, GAAM is however calling on the President, Nana Akufo Addo through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to consider introducing and implementing an Electoral Area Fund (EAF) whereby about 5% of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) will be designated for elected Assembly members to access for minor projects such as gutters, reroofing of classrooms and emergency matters that may arise at the various electoral areas.
Speaking to the media at a press conference held in Bolgatanga, the President of the association, David Adoliba noted that they expect the Local Government Ministry to consider helping Hon. Assembly members to acquire cars on the tax-exempt basis to GAAM members who need cars instead of motorbikes- Most of our members especially in the urban areas need cars to perform their functions efficiently.
“It is the considered view of GAAM that it is time to consider paying Assemble members allowances. This will go a long way to attract more qualified men and women to accept the position of Assembly Member. Some Assemblies still owe Hon. Assembly Members their exgratia two years after their tenure of office. We are hereby calling on such Assemblies to as a matter of emergency pay all outstanding monies owed the Hon. Assemblies before the confirmation of the government nominees for the various MMDAs.”
He stressed that “Government should ensure that the exgratia to Assembly members at the tenure of office should be flat across all Assembly members and should come from the consolidated fund instead of the Internally Generated Funds (IGF) this however does not exclude any top-up from Assemblies that have good IGF sources”.
The association also called on the Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu to spearhead and ensure that the five Assemblies without Presiding Members do so before nomination and confirmation of Municipal District Chief Executives in the region.
Mr Adoliba said “It must be noted that the Local Governance Act 2016 (936) gave the mandate of summons for confirmation of DCE nominees to only the Presiding Members, so we expect that the PMs must be elected and allowed to summon the house to consider the confirmation of the MDCE nominees. Any other way will violate the provision in Act 936. We, therefore, call upon such Assemblies to make compromises and reconcile their difference so as not to transfer such difference unto the MDCE nominees in the region.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Moses Apiah|Ghana
