Assembly members have no power to appoint unit committee

Twifo Praso (C/R), Jan. 11, GNA - Mr Samuel Agyeibe-Kessie, Twifo-Hemang-Lower Denkyira District Chief Executive, on Wednesday said assembly members have no power to appoint unit committee members. According to him, the constituency party chairmen in consultation with the chiefs have the power to appoint unit committee members. He said in this regard, he had declared all appointments of unit committee members made by assembly members in the various electoral areas in the District as null and void.

Mr Agyeibe-Kessie said this at the opening of a three-day orientation workshop for 60 assembly members at Praso. The programme organized by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, was designed to educate the assembly members on their duties and responsibilities.

Mr Agyeibe-Kessie said government attached importance to the programme and asked them to take their lessons seriously so that at the end of the day they would be abreast with the district assembly concept. He said assembly members were partners in development and that they should play a leading role in revenue mobilization.

Mr Emmanuel Agyeman, Presiding Member, advised the members not to solely rely on the common fund for the development of the District and urged them to draw their action plans that would help raise fund locally to support and supplement the efforts of the government.

Mr Ben Kobena Abban, a resource person, appealed to the participants to register with the National Health Insurance Scheme and also to encourage people in their electoral areas to register with the scheme for better health care delivery.

Participants were taken through topics like: "Functions and roles of assembly members", "Ghana government local system" and "the role of assembly members in local environmental and sanitation management as well as internal revenue generation".