ER Minister charges MMDCEs to step up their roles

Eric Kwakye Dafuor, Eastern Regional Minister has charged Municipal and District Chief Executives in the region to step up their roles to improve the living conditions of the people in their respective areas.

He said the 2018/2019 report on the District league Table showed that all the 32 administrative municipal and districts in the region performed poorly in all the indicators including education, health, sanitation, security, water coverage and even Open Defecation.

This according to the Regional Minister was an indictment on the Chief Executives saying “If as a Municipal or District Chief Executive you could not deliver to the people with all the resources and logistics at your disposal then it’s an indictment on you”

The Regional Minister who did not hide his disappointment said it was unacceptable that in education, sanitation, health, water, birth and deaths registration and security, which were the basic needs of every society, the districts in the region scored low marks.

He mentioned for instance, that in education and specifically, the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), the highest placement by a district in the Eastern Region was 11th whiles the worst performed district was placed at 119th position and in open defecation also performed poorly.

He, therefore, charged the MMDCEs to step-up their roles as leaders and managers of their respective districts to enhance the living conditions of the people adding that “It’s not about the position of being a Chief Executive and the euphoria, but it’s about managing the resources to the advantage of the people”.

The Minister was addressing the opening of a 2-day Regional Coordinating Council Meeting being attended by all heads of decentralized government agencies and departments, MMDCEs and their Presiding Members and heads of the security agencies in the region on Wednesday.

The District League Table was introduced by UNICEF and the CDD in 2014 to help identify disparities in resources and social development among districts in Ghana.

The Meeting is to afford members of the RCC to take stock of performance so far by the various departments and agencies as well as the MMDCEs and other key stakeholders to strategize for the way forward in implementing government’s policies for the benefits of the people.

Earlier, the Regional Minister took a swipe at the MMDCEs for reporting late to the meeting scheduled to have started at 9.00 am, as at 10.30, when the Regional Minister called for the register in apparent anger, only 27 out of the 70-member council had reported.

By 9.30 am, the Regional Minister and his deputy Mr Samuel Nuertey Tetteh, the Regional Coordinating Director, Mr Rudolph Kozie Sambo, the Eastern Regional representative on the Council of State Nana Somuah Mireku Nyarko and Nana Osei Nyarko, Deputy President of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs were already seated waiting for the arrival of the MMDCEs and Presiding Members.