Local governance under Akufo-Addo is dead - Former Ashanti Regional Minister

Former Ashanti Regional Minister, Alexander Ackon has observed that Ghana is fast returning to centralization instead of deepening decentralization which has been accepted as one of the rudiments of modern day democracy.

He told Kwame Adinkra on Kumasi-based Abusua Fm that local governance which is an integral part of any thriving democracy is dead under the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

“Kwame, local governance is dead under Akufo-Addo. We are going back to centralization instead of deepening decentralization”, he disclosed.

The former Minister said new directives of common fund application issued by the District Assemblies Common Fund Secretariat is a recipe for chaos as it could render most assemblies redundant.

“The assemblies have already approved their budgets and awarded contracts so the new directives of the application of the common fund will collapse the assembly and render assemblies redundant. The priorities of the assemblies vary and government cannot purport to decide what the assemblies need at the local level”, he stated.

In his view, local governance should be left with local administration thus the local assemblies and not total directives from the central government.

He accused the current administration of trying to bring down already established policies since it has been unable to secure funding for its flagship programmes

“The government has failed in finding a sustainable way of funding its flagship programs and has now resorted to collapse well-established policies already in place to sustain these programmes”, he alleged warning it could spell doom for the future of the country.