Route poverty alleviation funds

Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) -- Senior Minister J. H. Mensah, on Monday charged District Chief Executives to ensure that funds allocated for poverty alleviation are routed through reputable rural banks to ensure their prudent management and disbursement.

He noted that some banks rather transact other businesses with such funds instead of disbursing them as loans to farmers, contrary to government objectives. As implementers of government policies and programmes at the local level, DCEs must act as agents of change by effectively applying and translating these policies and programmes to the people, the Senior Minister said.

Mensah was speaking at a maiden meeting of the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Nana Kwadwo Seinti, with parliamentarians, ministers, and DCEs in the region aimed at giving them the platform to interact, socialize and brainstorm about the development of the region.

Mensah, who is MP for Sunyani East, advised the DCEs not to deal with local or community banks that had incompetent boards and managements and lacked the requisite expertise and ability to perform to expectation, as state funds must be managed judiciously and profitably for the benefit of everybody.

He said the government believed in decentralization as the ideal way to transfer political power to the people at the grassroots to facilitate development at the local level. "It is the promise of the President that the decentralization process will go on", he added, stating that all political parties were in consultations for the creation of additional 40 constituencies.

Kwadwo Adjei Darko, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development noted that disregard for environmental laws and planning regulations had resulted in the reckless estate development in most localities.

He cited that indiscriminate development in water-ways, water-logged areas and specific locations earmarked for community or national socio-economic purposes adversely affected the short-term, medium and long-term development in the country as it stifled investment opportunities.

Adjei-Darko, MP for Sunyani West advised the DCEs to pay particular attention to planning and land use to promote investment in their localities. Adjei-Darko deplored the multiple sale of lands either for private or commercial estate development by some chiefs and self-styled opinion leaders, saying the practice adversely affected the country's progress.

He asked DCEs to co-operate with parliamentarians and not to concentrate on infrastructural development to the neglect of sanitation and environmental cleanliness. The Minister charged them to ensure that Assemblies intensified internal revenue generation and set aside a percentage to employ local youth to undertake weeding and other cleaning jobs in the communities.

"A DCE must not be an arm-chair public servant who only delivers speeches at functions in his district, visits the RCC and sometimes travels to Accra for other official duties" Adjei-Darko announced that a policy would be instituted to ensure that quarterly reports on the performance of DCEs, including their visits to communities under them would be submitted for appraisal.

Nkrabeah Effah-Darteh, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and MP for Berekum advised DCEs to discharge their functions with the transparency it deserved, saying, "We have all sorts of interesting reports about some of you."

He explained that the DCE's position demanded sacrifice and commitment to the welfare of the people, not for self-seeking and personal aggrandisement. The Deputy Minister warned that "if you think you cannot work to the expectation as a DCE just resign to pave the way for the government to appoint a new person because public service is about truth, honesty and service to the people."

Nana Seinti in an opening remarks stated that the collaborative functions of the RCC, the MPs and the DCEs would catapult the development of the region. Present at the meeting was Yaw Adjei-Duffuor, Deputy Regional Minister.