Directors advised to demonstrate strong leadership qualities

Dr Callistus Mahama, the Head of Local Government Services (LGS) has advised Municipal, Metropolitan and District Coordinating Directors in the country to demonstrate strong leadership skills and help in the proper administration of the districts for development.

He said Coordinating Directors owe it a duty to ensure that they assisted the political heads to carry out the development agenda of the districts for the benefit of the people and asked them to always perform their duties diligently and where necessary, advise the MMDCEs on administrative issues for the needed development to take place.

Dr Mahama gave the advice in Tamale on Thursday, during the second Annual General Meeting of the Association of District Co-coordinating Directors, on the theme: “The Coordinating Director as agent of change” and brought together all Municipal, Metropolitan and District Coordinating Directors from all over the country.

The two-day programme would discuss the “Management leadership in the decentralized administration”, “The political and administrative challenges of DCD and performance management”, “Sustaining development at the district level in the face of resource constrains, the role of the Coordinating Director” and “Stress management and exit plan”.

Dr Mahama therefore asked the Coordinating Directors not to be interested in their individual welfare but rather, they should be concerned and interested in the overall development of the assemblies by performing their duties without fear or favour to give more meaning to the decentralisation process.

He expressed concern about the low number of women Coordinating Directors in the country saying, “Out of the 216 Coordinating Directors, only 13 are women and out of the 13 women only six are substantive and the remaining seven are at the acting capacity, which must be addressed”.

Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru, the Northern Regional Minister said the country’s efforts at achieving holistic development rested largely on the effective and efficient functionality of the local government institutions and structures.

He said the country could not have the assemblies functioning effectively and efficiently if there were no capable men and women committed to the ideals of the various assemblies and called on the association to serve as a platform for building professionalism and the needed capacity for effective service delivery.

He said the country had gone through a number of efforts to decentralize political and administrative authority from the centre to the local level with some key aspirations, which included providing more responsive, equitable and participatory development, among others to the people.

Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru said the establishment of the local government service should spur the country on to work and transform the sector to greater heights and that the country could not continue doing things the same way all the time.

He advised the Directors to be more professional in the conduct of their activities saying, “I need to emphasis on your status as non-partisan persons.

He said the 1992 Constitution allows freedom of association and that any public servant who wants to do open politics must resign from the position so as not to bring about acrimony and division at the work place.