ILGS charges assemblies to ensure transparency, accountability of resources

The Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) on Monday began a training programme for staff of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) to ensure effective utilization of resources for accelerated development.

The workshop aims at equipping participants with effective leadership and communication tools, examining the vision and mission statements of the Assembly as well as implementing strategies in ensuring effective resource management to meet its needs and challenges.

Mr. Simon Bokor, Dean of Management Development and Training of the ILGS who addressed the participants in Sekondi, said the training programme was informed by the challenges that confronted the Assembly staff in the performance of their statutory functions.

The participants included the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Metropolitan Coordinating Director, heads of departments, finance officers and chairpersons of the various Assembly committees.

The workshop is being organised by the ILGS in collaboration with UK A. Consultancy, a private consultancy firm with funding from the District Assemblies’ Common Fund.

The participants were taken through topics such as “Strategic Management and Leadership in Metropolitan Assemblies, Resource Management and Action Planning and Evaluation.

The Dean of ILGS indicated that similar workshops had been organised for staff of the various metropolitan assemblies in the Northern and Ashanti regions.

Mr. Bokor noted that the existing structures of the local government concept and their way of working were designed and evolved to support the delivery of service to the citizenry.

He added that this trend had supported the principle of representative democracy; however, citizens had had little opportunity to engage the assemblies’ authorities on resource utilisation, thereby, creating a sense of apathy and alienation among the people.

To reverse this trend, Mr. Bokor charged the participants to engage the citizens more in explaining the utilization of resources so that they would be more involved in the implementation of the annual, medium and long-term objectives of the Assembly for an accelerated national development.

Earlier, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) for Sekondi-Takoradi, Captain Anthony Cudjoe (Retired) said strategic management and planning was critical to the success of the Assembly, especially with the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities in the region.

He expressed the hope that the training would equip them to adopt best management practices for speedy development.**