Chiefs to contest presidential, parliamentary elections?

Wa, Nov. 4, GNA - A traditional ruler in the Upper West Region, Kuoro Kuri Buktie Limann IV, has advocated for chiefs to be allowed to stand as independent candidates to contest Presidential and Parliamentary elections in the country.

He argued that there was no sense in allowing chiefs to serve as members of Council of State and other boards of government agencies, but were denied the opportunity to stand as independent candidates to contest Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Kuri Buktie Limann, who is the Paramount Chief of the Gwollu Traditional Area in the Sissala West District, said there was nothing partisan about chiefs standing as independent candidates to vie for the Presidency, because those serving under them are their constituents.

The Gwollu Kuoro said this when he presented a paper on: "The Performance of the District Assembly systems" at a day's Regional Consultation Forum for the Acceleration of Decentralisation in Ghana held in Wa on Tuesday.

He said the 30 percent government appointees to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) should be reserved for traditional authorities and suggested a legal framework to regularize the chiefs in the selection of persons to be appointed.

The Kuoro Limann said chiefs should also be given a percentage in the District Assemblies Common Fund or some allocation from the Consolidated Fund, explaining that if Members of Parliament (MP) were entitled to some share of the Common Fund because they were representatives of their constituents, chiefs were more equally qualified to take a chunk of the fund to develop projects in their traditional areas to serve as living monuments and legacies.

"After all, chiefs were more with the people than the MPs. Chiefs are always with the people at the grassroots and the nation can not move without the active participation and involvement of chiefs in the governance of the country," he acknowledged.

The Gwollu Kuoro pointed out that chiefs have always served as checks and balances to governments and the governed, and promote governance as well as the democratic process at the grassroots level, and should therefore be given the needed recognition to contribute their quota to national development.

"We as a nation cannot move forward without decentralisation and we can also not do without the active involvement of chiefs", Kuoro Limann said.

"Traditional authorities are widely recognized as playing a legitimate and useful role on management of local affairs, yet there has not been a clear cut framework for their involvement in MMDAs administration.

Kuoro Limann said: "Partisanship considerations are becoming more paramount than the claim of stakeholder participation and gender balance in the appointment of 30 percent of members to the assemblies" He said the composition of the current National House of Chiefs was made up of various professionals of varied experiences and the Ministry of Local Government could count on their support for the decentralisation process.

Talking on the political and administrative framework on decentralisation, the Gwollu Kuoro noted that currently the lines of accountability were confused at the MMDAs because the presiding members, the District Chief Executives (DCEs) and MPs were all political representatives but draw authority and legitimacy from different sources.

He said competition for resources and claims to representation had resulted in many instances in conflicts, while democratic representation was challenged and compromised by a mixed model of representation at the district level where central government appointed 30 percent of members to the assemblies.

One more area of concern has to do with central government appointment of DCEs who effectively guide the MMDAs, not as a civil servant, but as a political appointee ultimately established the local government as an arm of the central government rather than a semi-autonomous layer of local government within a unitary state.

Kuoro Limann said as a result of this practice, the sub district local government structures were not viable, because there were many members in that sector who were not fully elected, while functions of sub-district structures were unclear and lacked personnel or financial resources to perform.

On local government finances, the Gwollu Kuoro noted that, various reform initiatives in fiscal decentralisation had not been fully coordinated and no operational fiscal decentralisation strategy linked to overall decentralisation policy legal framework.

"Another area of concern is the continued lack of integration of sector departments under the MMDAs structure and the Local Government Act, resulting in unclear expenditure assignments and blurred accountability," Kuoro Limann said.

Adding that, "Fragmented funding flows and grants modalities and in some cases, multiple streams of funds to cover costs of similar investments, particularly for capital development had impeded monitoring of financial management procedures". He observed that there were delays and unpredictability in the grant allocation to MMDAs, thereby hampering local planning and creating inefficiency in spending.