"We'll get salaries for Assembly members" - Gunu

Mr James Gunu, the District Chief Executive for Akatsi North, Saturday said when elected as the President of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), he would work towards improving the remuneration of Assembly members.

He said his Administration would work with other stakeholders towards the fixing of salaries and ex-gratia for Assembly members, saying the ex-gratia would be determined at the beginning of the tenure of beneficiaries with payment spread annually to ease pressure on the Assemblies.

Mr Gunu, who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on his vision for the Association, said that initiative would also help Assembly members design proper investment plans for their future and commit them to improve Internally Generated Fund (IGF) of the Assemblies.

He criticised the current situation where many Assemblies were unable to fully pay ex-gratia to Assembly members who had completed their terms and said that would be a thing of the past and urged the delegates to vote for him.

NALAG is the umbrella organisation of all Local Government Authorities in Ghana. They comprise Local Authorities in all the 216 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies

The Association promotes the development of local government and decentralisation and assists in maintaining high standard of local government service delivery, among other goals.

The election is scheduled for next month at Sunyani.

Mr Gunu said NALAG under his leadership would lead a campaign against child marriage, child labour and domestic violence against the vulnerable in society and work with local authorities in the sub-region in support of First Ladies towards empowering women and children.

“I believe child marriage takes place at the family level,” he said. “Local authorities, therefore, have the power to enact laws to break all barriers including traditional barriers that promote child marriage.”

Mr Gunu said he was poised to transform NALAG and promised to make the Association more creative, innovative and relevant to the people.

He hinted of the establishment of a “Rural Districts Development Fund” to support deprived districts aside the District Assembly Common Fund and the District Development Fund.

“Just as Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies have their challenges, so do deprived rural Assemblies have their peculiar challenges and I think this fund would help fast-track infrastructural developments there,” Mr Gunu said.