Central Regional Minister takes governance to the grassroots

Central Regional Minister, Mr Kwamena Duncan, has re-doubled his public engagements with the citizenry in the region as part of his core vision to bring governance and development to the door-steps of the ordinary person.

The engagements were also to ensure that good governance which is the fulcrum of democracy became entrenched, deepened and unparalleled to enable all and sundry to contribute effectively and meaningfully to the processes of nation building.

Again, it was to materially incentivise the President's quest to emancipate Ghana's wobbling economy and oil the wheels of its productive capacities through citizenry engagements.

Accompanied by, Mr Thomas Agyei Baffour, Deputy Regional Minister, Directors at the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), some Heads of Decentralised Departments, and the media, the entourage had within the last two weeks visited 13 out of the 20 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDCEs) in the region.

It offered the opportunity for scores of traditional leaders and Assembly members and staff to share views on government projects, programmes, policies and other work related challenges aimed at finding efficient ways of ameliorating the plight of the masses.

In all the Assemblies visited, Mr Duncan educated them on his three prompt vision on improving basic education, environmental consciousness and investment and job creation.

On all occasions, he intimated that a committee had been set up to monitor progress of the Assemblies and would reward Assemblies that performed well but would name all who under-performed.

To avoid the embarrassment of failing the test, he urged the staff of the Assemblies to be professional in the discharge of their duties and work in unity of purpose devoid of self-seeking interest that was detrimental to the growth of their Areas.

The Assemblies were also told to strengthen their internal revenue generation drive to finance development programmes, create jobs for the youth to significantly reduce social vices that had dire consequences on their future progress.

In line with that, he urged them to be creative and innovative in their attempt to improve Internally Generated Funds (IGF) so as to reduce the over reliance on the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and other traditional sources of revenue which had been inadequate to meet the development needs of the people.

Traditional authorities during the tour, applauded the President for his strong desire in honouring his campaign promises to provide free quality Senior High School (SHS) education, planting for food and job, paperless port system as well as government's determination to address the challenges associated with it.

Largely, they described his boldness as a mark of a good leader who was committed to solving problems confronting the people and therefore deserved the unblinking support of all.

Besides that, they also called on the government to properly engage and fully involve them in all of its policies especially in releasing lands for large-scale mechanised farming under the government's 'planting for food and jobs' Project.

The traditional authorities however, stressed the need for the government to consider marketing, irrigation and storage facilities as paramount issues to reduce the high post-harvest losses associated with farm produce in Ghana.

That notwithstanding, they lauded other initiatives and efforts by the Minister to explain government policies to empower the citizenry with the right information flow as a way of endearing their commitment to help the government to achieve them.

The traditional leaders did not mince words in enumerating dozens of challenges that had militated the rapid development of their respective communities.

Common among their needs were lack of basic infrastructural facilities and other social amenities including deplorable roads.