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Members of the Damongo Youth Parliament (DYP) in the Savannah Region have demonstrated against the president’s decision to site regional offices in districts and not the regional capital.
They said any attempt to site regional offices at the district level defeats the reason for the creation of the region.
A petition presented to the President through the Savannah Regional Minister at Damongo after the demonstration said the decision to spread regional offices in districts other than the regional capital would be an affront to the authority of Yagbonwura, the chief petitioner for the creation of the region, who wanted the regional offices to be at Damongo, the regional capital.
The petition was signed by Mr Abraham Ananpansah, Secretary, Mr Samuel Mahama Dinkeri, Lead Coordinator, and Mr Saaka Karim Lotic, Public Relations Officer of DYP.
President Nana Akufo-Addo, following the creation of the new regions, indicated that the regional offices of the decentralized departments would be sited at various districts in the regions other than only the regional capitals to promote the smooth running of the decentralization programme.
However, Yagbonwura Tuntumba Boresa, the Overlord of the Gonja Traditional Area expressed his opposition to siting regional offices of decentralized departments in districts other than Damongo, the capital of the Savannah Region.
The position of the Yagbonwura was endorsed by many interest groups including; some youth in the Savannah Region hence the demonstration.
The petition said “What we know is that the various regional departments are only to serve as coordinating agencies, thus, coordinating the development within the region, and dispersing these coordinating agencies will increase the cost of administration as the departments will have to communicate and share relevant documents, resources and information on regular basis.”
It said “The policy so proposed may work well in any other region, but for Savannah Region, the dispersed nature of our settlement patterns makes it impractical to reason about. It will only end up in promoting inefficiency and ineffectiveness in administration. The efficiency ingredient, which was key in requesting for the region, will be defeated with a decentralized bureaucracy.”
It said “Such a system will create access crises and slowdown the bureaucracy of the region, thus promoting ineffective administration and underdevelopment. It will unnecessarily overburden clients, who will be accessing these departments.”
It said “Damongo was settled on as the regional capital because of its generally accepted central nature, about four of the six districts in Gonjaland were closer in proximity to Damongo. It is centrally placed and best fit to coordinate development within the region.”
The petition said “We should like to state that the disadvantages of decentralising bureaucratic departments far outweigh the advantages, especially for the Savannah Region with its dispersed settlements.”
It said “As coordinating agencies, easy access to these departments is practically necessary if we mean development. Any attempt to scatter these departments will be counterproductive as our meagre resources will be disbursed in running administrative cost of the region, rather than developing.”
Mr Salifu Adam Braimah, Savannah Regional Minister, who received the petition, assured the petitioners that it would be forwarded to the President for consideration.
