‘Demand accountability from managers of national resources’

Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, has called on Presiding Members (PMs) of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), to ensure accountability from officials entrusted with the management of the national resources.

To this end, he said, it was imperative that PMs must be equipped with the requisite skills and tools, to enable them to play their roles in ensuring transparency and efficiency in the governance of the MMDAs.

Mr Oppong-Fosu said that the position of the PM as the Speaker of the local Assembly and Chairperson of the Audit Report Implementation Committee (ARIC), place them in a critical position where accountability and probity can be verified.

Moreso, he said, the ability of the PMs to interpret audit reports would enable them to pursue the effective implementation of the recommendations in the report.

Mr Oppong-Fosu made these observations on Friday at a workshop on the Audit Reports Interpretation for PMs, chairpersons of Sub-committees of the Assemblies and assembly members in the Western Region, in Takoradi.

“It is, therefore, proper that Chief Executives, Coordinating Directors, Heads of Departments and staff strongly demonstrate their commitment and cooperation to the work of the Assemblies in order to ensure that resources are used for their intended purposes,” he said.

The event was under the theme: “Interpretation and Implementation of Audit Reports” organised by the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCC).

Mr Oppong-Fosu said state institutions must be strengthened to provide the needed oversight roles to ensure that government officials carry out public functions efficiently, economically, ethically and equitably in order to achieve set goals and objectives.

Mr Ebenezer Kwadwo Teye Addo, Western Regional Minister, said the decentralization programme was one of the most innovative mechanisms that ensured that the ordinary citizen participated in the governance of the country.

The participants expressed worry over the delayed payment of District Assemblies Common Fund and excessive deductions by the Common Fund Secretariat and appealed to the sector minister to address the challenges.