President urges District Chief Executives to ensure accountability

Nkawkaw (E/R), Aug 8, GNA- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday called on District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives to ensure accountability and transparency in their administration to win the peoples support and cooperation.

He said chief executives have no right to give out tenders and implement their annual budget without approval by members of the District Assemblies, who are representatives of the people.

President Kufuor was addressing an emergency national conference of district chief executives at Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region.

He advised them to embrace the Local Government Bill when passed into Law to ensure success of the decentralisation programme, which he said is the only means to enhance rural development.

Once the Bill is passed the assemblies would become autonomous to initiate and implement their own development programmes, he said. The President advised them not to ignore the party machinery in the districts but cooperate with party chairmen and executives and also avoid conflicts with Parliamentarians to enable them to win the 2004 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

He said their good work as administrators would reflect on their performance of the government and the party that brought them to office. They should therefore implement all development programmes to improve the living standards of the people.

President Kufuor asked them to respect the chieftaincy institution and ensure equal representation of chiefs on the town, area, and urban councils to enable them contribute towards the development of communities.

The Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko said provisions have been made under the Local Government Bill for the training of personnel at the Local Government Institute to ensure capacity building for effective implementation of the decentralisation programme.

He said the District Tender Boards needed to be reviewed to enhance the execution of contracts in the districts.

The Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Gustav Narh Dometey said the mid-year conference is for them to take stock of their achievements, failures, difficulties and constraints in the performance of their duty as frontline officers in the implementation of programmes.

He said such exercises are very important for all human organisations to make amends and plan for future development in the districts. The District Chief Executive for Kwahu South, Mr Raymond Osafo Gyan, commended the government for financing a lot of infrastructure such as roads, classroom blocks, markets and health centres, which have enhanced development in the area.

He said the district had a lot of tourist attraction and appealed for assistance to develop them to attract more tourists. In an address read on his behalf, the Omanhene of the Kwahu Traditional area, Dasebre Akuamoah Boateng II appealed to the government to change the name of the Afram Plain District to Kwahu North District since the land belongs to the Kwahus.