Ahwoi calls for legislative review

Kumasi, Dec. 11, GNA - Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, former Minister of Local Government and rural Development, has called for the organisation of a national stakeholders' conference to review all legislations that tend to re-centralise rather than decentralise functions and powers of governance at the local levels.

He mentioned in particular the Financial Administration Act, 2003, Act 654, Local Government Service Act 2003, Act 656, Internal Audit Agency Act 2003, Act 658, Public Procurement Act 2003, Act 663 and the Internal Revenue (Registration of Business) Act 2005, Act 684, as some of the recent legislations which needed a critical review to ensure effective decentralisation at the local levels.

Speaking at a workshop on "decentralisation in Ghana: Challenges of implementing the Public Procurement Act in Kumasi on Monday, Mr Ahwoi said such a review would be consistent with the letter and spirit of the Article 254 of the constitution.

The workshop, which was organised by the "Public Agenda" newspaper in collaboration with the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), aimed at creating a platform for local government practitioners to discuss the challenges inherent in the implementation of the Public Procurement Act and the decentralisation system in the country.

Mr Ahwoi further called for the review of the District Assemblies Common Fund Act, to repeal sections vesting power in the Ministers of Local government and Finance to determine components of central government programmes and projects to be financed by the common fund. Mr Ahwoi, who spoke on the topic "decentralisation in Ghana, what has gone wrong, from the legal perspective", said the Procurement Act and other financial legislations as they stood were worrying signals that rather than decentralising, the country was re-centralising its governance system and it was time to call a halt, take a stock of the situation and decide on a new course forward.

He said one of the worrying situations in the Act was the procurement structures and the role of the decentralised governance structures in the procurement procedures.

Mr Ahwoi, who is also a senior lecturer at GIMPA said as district political authorities, Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) were political approving authorities in their own right and they should therefore have political approval and oversight responsibility for activities of the District tender Committees (DTCs) and the District tender review Boards (DTRBs).

He said these measures were necessary if the objectives of decentralisation were to be realised. Mr Vitus Azeem of the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) said corruption was a major problem in the procurement system. He said lack of competent personnel with the requisite technical know-how to be appointed to the procurement boards was a major challenge to the implementation of the Act and called on civil society organisations to play effective monitoring role in the procurement system to ensure the implementation of the cost effective projects in their areas.

Mr George Kyei Baffour, President of NALAG said there was the need to identify the numerous challenges facing local governance in the country and called for a concerted effort from civil society groups to ensure the efficient implementation of physical decentralisation system in the country. 11 Dec. 06