Professor Atsu Ayee, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), has berated the unavailability of a blueprint for the operation of local authorities under the new regime.
He bemoaned the situation whereas the campaign for the election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) intensified the unavailability of the blueprint to make the local authorities operational must be worrisome for the new regime.
Expressing the sentiments at a stakeholder engagement on the election of MMDCEs under the auspices of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Professor Ayee stressed that “we need a blueprint which will give us the picture of how the system will look like though the election will drastically change the dynamics and operation of the local assemblies”.
“We are worried that there is still no blueprint on the expected changes since the blueprint will define and guide expected relationship between the elected chief executives on one hand and the members of the assemblies, the district coordinating directors, and the heads of decentralised departments on the other hand as well as the relationship between the elected MMDCEs and the appointed regional ministers.
“I am also wondering what becomes of the president’s promise to institute a multi-disciplinary panel of experts to map out frameworks for new regime though he made a statement in his state of the nation address in February, we are in October I have not heard about any multi-disciplinary panel of experts, I am sure if panel of experts are established, we will have architecture of reformed local governance structure,” Prof Ayee pointed out.
He charged the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to release the blueprint to allay concerns of the citizenry because the Electoral Commission had already announced December 17, 2019 for the referendum on the election and registered political parties had already expressed resolve to campaign for a YES vote.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Progressive People’s Party (PPP), National Democratic Party (NDP), Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), have all pledged to work towards the realisation of the aspirations of the citizenry. -citinewsroom.com
