Local government system cannot flourish on dysfunctional substructures – Director
Mr. Dennis M. Bayuo, a Deputy District Coordinating Director at the Nadowli District Assembly has said that local government system would not thrive in Ghana if the substructures were not given the needed support to function properly.
He said it had been established that since the inception of the 1992 constitution that established the Local Government Systems, substructures of the Local Governance system, especially Area/Town and Urban Councils as well as the Unit Committees had not been properly equipped to discharge their core functions effectively.
Another challenge facing those substructures had been the caliber of persons co-opted to take up the job, especially at the Unit Committees level which, Mr. Bayuo described as one of the pillars of the local governance systems.
Mr. Bayuo was addressing assembly and unit committee members, decentralized departments, youth groups, women groups, persons living with disabilities, religious groups and security personnel at a two-day stakeholders’ consultation on “Healthy democracy” workshop at Nadowli on Thursday.
He said many of those elected to take up duties at the Unit Committees level could hardly comprehend what was expected of them even though they had been taken through their functions.
That, Mr. Bayuo noted had contributed to the abysmal performance at the Unit Committees level resulting in the poor performance of assemblies in revenue mobilization.
“The non-functioning of our substructures, district assemblies especially, those of us in the North are unable to generate the needed revenue for development.
“I am not advocating that illiterates should not be elected to Unit Committees but that they should be persons who are smart and ready to learn and work”, Mr. Bayuo explained.
Mr. Bayuo noted that revenue collection had been left in the hands of some people who were not even respected in their communities and that anytime when such personalities embarked on revenue collection exercise nobody minded them.
He suggested to government to develop a pay structure for revenue collectors across the country including social security contributions but that should depend on a minimum amount paid in by a revenue collector to the assembly.
The workshop was on the theme: “Strengthening Transnational Partnerships and Networks for Enhancing Participatory Local Governance”.
The National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), the Urban Council Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) and the Gambia Local Government
Association organised the workshop with sponsorship from the European Union.
Source: GNA