Government wants to have rapport with citizens - Mustapha Hamid

Mr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Minister of Information and Presidential Spokesperson, has hinted on government’s appreciation of the need for citizens of Ghana to be well informed about its policies.

“We need to, and in fact, we are organising our information dissemination processes such that every citizen gets to know what government is doing in his name and with his tax money,” he informed.

Mr Abdul-Hamid said this during the launch of the maiden Town Hall Meetings as part of the activities packaged by the Ministry of Information to reach out to the people of Ghana.

According to him, governance should not be only about elections and campaigns, which brought government officials once every four years to meet the people through mass rallies.

Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and Member of Parliament (MP) for Nalerigu/Gambaga, said it was important to consider revenue mobilisation, that is “collection, mobilisation and payment of rates and licenses and property rates” as one of the crucial elements of development and governance.

She said Tema had a lot of avenues to generate revenue such that the Tema Metropolitan Assembly may not depend on the District Assembly Common Fund.

She, therefore, observed that the Town Hall meeting was a good opportunity to create the enabling environment within which taxes in Tema could be collected and utilised for the development of the community.

Mr Ishmael Ashitey, Greater Accra Regional Minister, said Town Hall Meetings were a means of deepening democracy and ensuring accountability in the Ghanaian society.

He said it was designed to provide the platform for national and local politicians to meet their constituents and “offer an opportunity to take into consideration feedback on important national interest as well as discuss issues related to upcoming legislations.”

He observed that the current government would work better if representatives and constituents heard directly from each other, adding that “even if we disagree on issues, we can still discuss them in respectful and positive manner, and that is how we arrive at solutions to our problems.”

Mr Daniel Nii Titus-Glover, Deputy Minister of Transport, said that Town Hall Meetings served as platforms for assemblies to interact with the public and for that matter, there were a lot of things the public would expect from the assembly.

Mr Titus-Glover, who was also the Member of Parliament for Tema East, said, “It’s about relationship, how the assembly can build a rapport with the people because we are taking fees; we are taking market tolls, lorry park tolls, building permits; and in collecting these monies, the people want us to be accountable. They want us to deliver quality service so that when they are asked to pay more, they would not hesitate because they know their money would be put to good use.”