TOP 10 DISTRICTS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICE RANKING WILL BE REWARDED – ENG. DR. NANA ATO ARTHUR.
The Head of the Local Government Service, Dr. Nana Ato Arthur has disclosed that very soon, awards would be provided to the top ten (10) performing Metropolitan, Municipal, District Assembly (MMDA) in the Local Government Service Ranking and that various sanctions such as stalling the promotion of staff would be meted out against the low performing ones.
He attributed the poor performance of the Assemblies to poor leadership of the District Coordinating Directors who are the heads of the technical staff in the district assemblies and urged them to do better while commending those who had shown effective leadership as far as the performance of their MMDA’s were concerned.
Hon. Dr. Ato Arthur made this statement when he addressed Coordinating Directors at the Second Quarter Performance Review meeting of the Eastern Regional Coordinating Directors in Koforidua.
He therefore urged them to take findings from the 2020 Auditors General Performance Audit of 50 district assemblies under the Ghana Strengthening Accountability Mechanism serious and work hard to prevent its occurrence. The reports identified that a lot of projects examined were found to have exceeded their budget estimates by significant percentages, some on payment for works not done and others related to various procurement infractions.
Commenting on the performance of the Eastern Regional Coordinating Council in the Annual Local Government Service Performance rankings for RCC’s, the Hon. Minister, Mr. Seth Kwame Acheampong said “together we win, together we lose.”
He recognized the heads of the various administrative bodies of the assemblies as the machines that can aid the Coordinating Council in the efficient and diligent discharge of its duties and further described them as reflections of the output of the performance of their assemblies.
He then urged them to help him in uplifting the image of the Region. He admitted awareness of the delay with respect to their common fund, and entreated them to remain steadfast and be guided by their vast experience and stewardship.
Hon. Acheampong lamented on the lateness of the attendees to the program and urged them to inculcate the value of punctuality into their lives.
The Chief Director of the Eastern Regional Coordinating Council (ERCC) Mr. Samuel Donkor in his address, indicated that the quarterly meetings were held to evaluate performances for the previous quarter and also to draw up new strategies for the ensuing quarters and expressed his hope that the meeting would help to address some of the challenges that would be raised.
Commenting on the poor performance of the Region in the Local Government Service Performance rankings, Mr. Donkor said investigations have revealed relationship between training of staff and performance and urged directors to ensure that officers do not skip out on training programmes.
Other challenges highlighted included issues regarding submission of reports to the RCC, difficulty in accessing information from Districts, lateness and absenteeism, interpersonal conflicts amongst management staff, non functionality of client service units and assembly websites and poor record management systems.
The meeting saw the attendance of dignitaries such as Dr. Nana Ato Arthur, the Head of the Local Government Service, Mr. James Oppong-Mensa, Chief Director of the Local Government Service and Mr. Samuel Donkor, the Regional Coordinating Director for the Eastern Regional Coordinating Council.