Kufuor calls on District Assemblies to be proactive

Kodie (Ash), March 01, GNA- President John Agyekum Kufuor has called on District Assemblies to be proactive and performance oriented. He said, there was the need for, especially the newly created ones to do things differently, come out with innovative ways of generating revenue and improving revenue collection and should be creative in their environmental health sanitation management.

This was contained in an address read on his behalf by Mr. Albert Kan Dapaah, Minister of Defence at the inauguration of Afigya-Kwabre District Assembly, a newly created district in Ashanti at Kodie on Friday.

He said, apart from ensuring more effective transmission of resources to communities, the creation of Assemblies was expected to challenge the people to create competitive and efficient machineries for public service delivery.

President Kufuor stressed that District Assemblies needed to work consciously to accommodate the actors in service provision in such sectors as education, health, water and sanitation, environmental management and others.

"In particular, you must take your facilitation of such important national initiatives such as the Health Insurance Scheme, School Feeding Programme and Youth Employment Programmes seriously", he said. He told the Assembly members to recognize that the exercise of participatory democracy was not only critical for good governance and equitable development, it is also imperative for conflict prevention, effective communication and social cohesion.

The President, therefore, called on them to cherish inclusiveness, consultation with stakeholders, regular communication and transparency. He said local conflicts have tendered to flare up in various parts of the country and the onus was on the district assemblies and the district security committees to ensure the protection of life and property to make people feel safe "saying the emphasis, therefore, should be on conflict prevention and this should feature prominently on your agenda".

Mr. Ben Abankwa, Sekyere South District Chief Executive in a welcoming address noted that the economic and social transformation of the country can best be achieved through the process of grassroots participation in local governance.

He said, the district cannot fail to succeed. "I have such great confidence because of the various personalities who are going to serve on this assembly and the experience they have acquired over the years from the previous assemblies they were serving".

Mr. Abankwa expressed the hope that members would not seek their personal interests and that the qualities and attributes which earned them the membership of the old assemblies would be manifested in the discharged of their new responsibilities.

The Assembly members were sworn into office by Mr. David Akalaare Azangweo, District magistrate of Kodie Magistrate court