Minister signs performance contract with MMDCEs

Peter Anarfi Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister has directed Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and Co-ordinating Directors at the various Assemblies in the Ashanti Region to play active roles in the development of the nation.

He said the role of the MMDCEs and Assemblies must be seen to affect the lives of the people. The occasion was the signing of performance contract between MMDCEs and MMDCDs in Kumasi.

The minister noted that people want to see physical development and not abstract ones and urged them to identify the needs of the people and how their needs would be provided to them.

According to him, the local government Service was established by the Local Government Act 656 in 2003 to secure effective administrations and management of Local Government in Ghana.

He added that the mission of the Local Government Service states that it support Local Government to deliver value for money services through the mobilization, harmonization and utilization of quality human capacity and material resources to promote local and national development.

According to him, some appointees and employees may have blared vision as to their responsibilities in the service if these are not clearly spelt out and that in the circumstances, achievement of set objective always suffer as there are no set target and expected outcomes.

The situation, he said, serve as inertia to the achievement of targets in the MMDAs and eventually national development is negatively affected.

He also revealed that, where targets are not achieved at the right standards and the time lines followed, it slows down our expectation and affects financial managements in respect of implementation of development projects in the MMDAs.

Mr. Anarfi-Mensah stated that the performance contract is a mechanism in the implementation of strategized performance management system as it will enable employees, management and the service to agree on terms and conditions to be committed to the achievements of set objectives and targets in the service delivery time-frame.

He said since the document clearly spells out the key performance areas based on which the contract parties will be assessed, it is expected that henceforth they shall begin to experience high performance that meets the expectation of all parties, and that the appropriate rewards, recognition and sanction will be applied when it becomes necessary at the end of each contract period.

The Minister disclosed that, a contract sets roles and responsibilities to parties, it makes provisions for a review process and demand commitment of parties to agreed terms and condition and expressed the hope that MMDCEs will be committed to the contract and help and guide MMDCDs to perform the terms of the contract so that the benefits of good performance is achieved to better the lives of the people they serve.

This, he noted, was the only means by which MMDCEs could justify the establishment of the service and thus create an efficient and effective service delivery to the grassroots.