The Minister of Education, Mr. Lee Ocran, on Thursday inaugurated the newly created Mpohor District Assembly with a call on the traditional authorities to support the development efforts of the new assembly.
Mr. Ocran said although the government had allocated GH?42 million as seed capital for each of the newly created districts in this year’s budget, there is the need for grassroots support in ensuring an accelerated development.
He appealed to petty traders and property owners in the district to pay their tolls, levies and taxes to the assembly so that it could mobilize revenue towards the speedy development of the area.
The Education Minister said the creation of the new assembly is a fulfillment of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) promise of bringing governance at the doorsteps of the people and charged the new assembly to consult the old assembly in ensuring that it develops a spatial development plan to avert poor planning, sanitation as well as ensuring proper waste management.
As part of the intervention for the new district, he said, two senior high schools, operational logistic support, bungalow for the DCE, district coordinating director, health facilities as well as construction of all weather roads to the district capital would be provided.
Mr. Ocran said government had accepted the recommendations of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) and the position for the district chief executive would be vied for, after the president had nominated five persons from the district.
He said the Public Services Commission (PSC) would vet the five nominees and recommend three persons who would contest an election to elect a district chief executive for the area.
This he said, is geared towards weaning the DCE position from partisanship and ensuring that the DCE is responsible and accountable to the people instead of the president.
The assemblies would play lead roles in development because they would employ and pay their own staff, cede the heads of education of basic and secondary institutions to them while the regional coordinating council’s functions would be well defined, he said.
The DCE for Wassa East District, Mr. Anthony Bassaw, said the creation of the new district would open floodgates of opportunities for the district and urged everyone to be prepared to play their roles.
He observed that the new district has two traditional areas namely Mpohor and Wassa Fiase traditional areas, and that at the maiden meeting of the assembly, a resolution would be passed to give a new name to the district to reflect the duality of the two traditional areas.
The Omanhene of Mpohor Traditional Area, Osabarima Kow Entsie II, expressed appreciation to the government for creating the new district and pledged the support of the traditional council and the people of the area towards development.
He said the poor road network, collapsed bridges that had cut-off some communities from the district, inadequate health facilities and education facilities are retarding the development of the area.
He appealed to the government to support the infrastructure development of the area.
The occasion witnessed the attendance of government functionaries, heads of department and traditional authorities amidst display of traditional regalia, drumming and dancing.**
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