Local Governance Expert bemoans lack of coordination among MDAs

Akwasi Owusu-Bi, Local Governance Specialist has bemoaned the lack of coordination among the sub-national agencies on their activities and timely release of budgetary allocations to them.

He said the habit of allocating monies to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to continue unattended to programmes and projects without re-validating them to verify their relevance to the time was worrying and must be stopped for effective and efficient outcomes.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, he called on the Government through the Ministry of Finance to desist from the practice, if they wanted to achieve effectiveness and efficiency in the local governance discourse as a country.

Mr Owusu-Bi also bemoaned the lack of national development goals and advised that political party manifestos should not supersede the country’s goals, but should be tailored to suit the national development goals instead.

He said though some political party manifestos conformed with the national development plans, they mostly compromised because of political expediency.

Mr Owusu-Bi said although budgetary allocation to the course of Decentralisation and Local Government was increased by about 41.9 per cent, from GHC1.1 billion in the 2020 Budget to GHC1.6 in the 2021 budget, there would be no change from the previous outcomes because of delays in releasing the allocations and the lack of proper coordination.

He said short to medium-term development plans of the Government should be available at the Area and Urban Councils so that members of the public could access it to monitor executions of such Programmes and projects to demand transparency and accountability.