President Mills to tour District Assemblies

Accra, Aug 1, GNA- President John Evans Atta Mills at the week-end announced that he would soon be visiting all the districts to access the progress of work at the district level.

He gave no date for the tour, but the visits might be unannounced, to give the President a true picture of the situation on the ground.


The tour of the President comes in the wake of reports reaching his office that some Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives were performing below expectation, and were engaged in acts that tended to draw back the progress Government was making in the governance process.


While commending those doing well, the President was straight in saying that he would not hesitate to sack those who were not performing and are engaged in acts of indiscipline.


Furthermore, "those DCE's and MCE's, who think they are lords onto themselves should be careful because, at the appropriate time the axe may fall where it may be necessary".


President Mills made the announcement in an interaction with Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives at the Castle, Osu, in Accra.

He minced no words in calling the Chief Executives to make amends, explaining that the number of complaints he received on daily basis about some of them are not encouraging and those few should emulate the good example being set by their colleagues.


"I cannot tolerate indiscipline, I cannot tolerate people who think they are lords onto themselves," President Mills warned.


He said the Regional Ministers and the MMDCEs were his direct representatives at the regional and district levels, adding "your failure will be my failure and your success will be my successes."


President Mills pointed out that, at the end of the day, it is not the performance of the Chief Executives that would be judged, but the entire ruling Government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).


According to the President, even though there were challenges in some of the districts, in terms of accumulated debt, some of the complaints he had been receiving were not about the debt, but rather that, some of them were not making good use of the resources allocated to them.

President Mills said very soon, government would initiate many development projects, and urged the MMDCEs to involve the party supporters, foot soldiers and especially the women, to be part of these projects.


He said the Minster of Local Government and Rural Development had presented a detailed and comprehensive local government policy and when approved, much of the powers will be at the district, for them to initiate their own development plans.


President Mills decried the unnecessary tension between the MMDCEs and the party hierarchy, and urged them to exercise restraint and have a measure of tolerances to handle some of the problems that party members bring to them.


The President urged them to work with the Regional Ministers and the MPs and stop the petty squabbles, and also not to allow their opponents to divide their ranks.


"There are a lot of successes to be chalked and come 2012 I will lead the NDC to another victory, " President Mills said.

President Mills called on the Chief Executives to prove their mettle to justify the confidence reposed in them as an important part of the governance process and work hard to realise the Better Ghana agenda.


Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said the new decentralisation policy would involve the local people at the grass root level to own their own development.


This, he said would open up the governance process to the grass-root and also encourage mass participation in governance.


He said the Government's Better Ghana programme was beginning to manifest and therefore it behoved on them to work hard to win the confidence of the people to get their votes again come 2012.