Government asked to resource Assembly members

Mr Michael Zuri, National Service Coordinator for Talensi Nabdam District, has asked Government to resource assembly members to enable them to effectively carry out their duties and responsibilities.

He said that the failure of Government to adequately resource the District Assembly and Unit Committee members was hampering the effective implementation of the decentralization programme.

Mr Zuri said these when he facilitated a training workshop on Tuesday for newly elected assembly and unit committee members at the Talensi Nabdam District in the Upper East Region.

The training programme, organised by the Talensi-Nabdam Office of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), was aimed at schooling the 96 newly elected assembly and unit committee members on their roles and responsibilities.

Mr Zuri said: “The roles and responsibilities assigned to assembly and unit committee members are enormous and demand resources. Assembly members who are directly linked to the communities cannot organise regular meetings to discuss issues held at the assembly neither can they organise meetings to solicit their views to be channelled to Assembly meetings for discussions”.

He appealed to the newly elected assembly and unit committee members to initiate self-help development projects to complement government’s development
Efforts.

Mr Zuri expressed worry that some development partners had either abandoned projects in certain communities or had sent them elsewhere as a result of the lack of support from the people.

He called on the new members to brief the people about decisions that would be taken at their and to also seek their views before attending meetings.

“As newly elected assembly and unit committee members, it is incumbent upon you to use your initiatives and lobbying for development from non-governmental organizations for your communities and not to solely depend on the District Assembly Common Fund”, Mr Zuri advised.

The District Director of NCCE, Mr Donatus Yin, said the programme formed part of activities of the 11th constitutional week of the Commission and sought to educate the newly elected assembly and unit committee members on their roles and responsibilities.

Source: GNA