New performance monitoring framework for Assemblies soon

Mampong (Ash), Feb. 23, GNA- The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, will soon adopt a new performance monitoring framework for the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, the sector Minister announced on Thursday.

He said the framework would provide the opportunity for the Ministry to work with community groups and other stakeholders in an attempt to build consensus on indicators of performance of local government authorities.

Mr. Asamoah-Boateng disclosed this when he was addressing assembly members and heads of departments of the Sekyere West District Assembly, at Ashanti-Mampong, as part of a two-week working visit to the Ashanti Region.

The visit, which would take him to eight districts, would enable him to interact with the Assembly members, heads of departments, opinion leaders and inspect development projects as well as explain government policies and programmes to the people.

"We would adopt measures to assess the performance of local government authorities, using benchmarks such as local revenue mobilization, sanitation, budgeting, and community service delivery, and at the end of the year come out with a league table to rank the performance of MMDAs", the Minister said.

He indicated that MMDAs that were living up to expectation would be rewarded through various incentive packages, while non-performing chief executives and administrative staff would be dealt with appropriately. Mr. Asamoah-Boateng, therefore, urged the MMDAs to find innovative ways of raising local revenue to complement the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and other funds from central government and donors, pointing out they could achieve this through consensus building with property owners and business enterprises.

The Presiding Member (PM) of the Sekyere West District Assembly, Mr. Rockson R. Agyekum said there was cordial working relation between the Assembly and the District Chief Executive on one hand and the Members of Parliament (MPs) for Mampong and Nsuta-Kwamang-Beposo on the other hand.

He thanked the Minister for the Visit and urged him to impress upon the Cabinet to consider improving upon the ex-gratia awards of assembly members to motivate them to work harder.

Mr. Haruna Oppong Boateng, District Chief Executive, noted that despite the unimpressive local revenue mobilization, the assembly was doing well in the provision of infrastructure and social services in deprived communities.

He appealed to the sector Minister to provide more financial and logistic support to enable the Assembly deal with the problem of waste disposal.

The Minster later addressed a durbar of chiefs and people of the Mampong Traditional Area, and inspected development projects, including the new Mampong Market and a 695-million cedi block of classrooms for Mampong Islamic Primary School.