Some newly-created Districts to be re-aligned

Accra, Jun 5, GNA - Some Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), especially those created between 2004 and 2005, would undergo a re-alignment after the 2010 census, Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said at the weekend.

"This means some of the MMDAs will either be collapsed or merged with others" he said, explaining that the move was to ensure effective administration and prudent application of resources for the benefit of the people.

Mr Afriyie-Ankrah made this known when he presented a paper at a Conflict and Crisis Management Course (CCMC) for personnel of security agencies at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) at Teshie in Accra.

He said government would ask the Electoral Commission (EC) to use the results of the 2010 census in addition to its (EC) guidelines on creating new MMDAs to do the re-alignment exercise.

He was expressed the optimism that this would address the current situation where most newly created MMDAs were spending a substantial chunk of their Common Fund on the provision of new infrastructure such as residential and office complex for staff to the detriment of essential development projects.

On the issue of political party functionaries who engaged in acts of violence, Mr Afriyie-Ankrah directed the security agencies to arrest and put before court, any foot-soldier or political party activists whose actions violate the laws of the land.

The Deputy Minister said such violations sometimes led to inter-party and/or intra-party conflicts whose management took huge amounts of government's resources that could otherwise be used for development projects. The CCMC, a three-week course, is a collaboration between GAFCSC and Cranfield University of the United Kingdom. It is being attended by 90 participants, comprising 39 GAFCSC students and 51 external participants from various institutions, including uniformed personnel and the Emergency Services. The course aims at providing participants with a clear understanding of conflict and internal crisis management to enable them to render more effective, efficient services.