By Rosemary Wayo
Tamale, June 21, GNA – Presiding Members (PMs) of the District Assemblies in the country converged in Tamale for this year’s National Conference of PMs.
The conference was to rally PMs to discuss welfare challenges of Assembly Members and implementation measures to enhance local governance.
It was attended by high-ranking dignitaries all over the country including Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
The two-day conference was themed: “The Role of the Local Authorities in Ensuring Public Safety: Business for All”.
Mr Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, Speaker of Parliament, in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, said active citizen participation at the local level could help overcome apathy in decision-making.
He urged PMs to create civic education platforms for indigenes’ voices to be heard and advocated that their concerns and aspirations be represented appropriately.
He said insufficient funding was a challenge at the district level despite support from the District Assemblies Common Fund and encouraged PMs to explore other avenues to generate funds to meet the increasing security needs of the community.
The Speaker said competency, capacity and quality were sacrificed at the local level, which had the tendency of affecting public security.
To address this, he recommended the provision of incentives that could attract qualified personnel to rural areas.
Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, acknowledged the contributions of PMs to governance, and urged them to keep up the efforts.
Dr Nana Ato Arthur, Head of Local Government Services, said it was ideal for District Assembly elections to be held on partisan basis and argued that although not constitutional, the elections were already partisan.
He said “The aborted referendum was a missed opportunity to make district assembly elections partisan. They are being done partisan already. So, let’s make it official.”
Mr Eric Nana Agyeman Prempeh, President of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana urged PMs to support district offices of the National Disaster Management Organisation to promote risk reduction.
He said meetings of the district management committees were key to enhancing public safety.
Mr Joseph Korto, National Dean of PMs, solicited the provision of offices for PMs to facilitate administrative work at the local level.
GNA