The Chamber for Local Governance (ChaLoG) said it was greeted with shock when the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama, assessed and scored herself 90 per cent of the promises made by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in its 2016 manifesto.
She made this known at a Press conference in Accra on Wednesday, August 26, 2020.
ChaLoG said it will rather score the minister 40 per cent for its performance as far the promises are concerned.
“Ensure the consolidation of all existing national sanitation policies, plans and programmes into a National Programme and Action Plan and establish a National Sanitation Fund to fund it (Not Delivered even though this particular is supposed to have been implemented by the Sanitation Minister) .
“With the aforementioned promises and the non-delivery rate of the Minister, ChaLoG is therefore convinced beyond all reasonable doubts, that local government minister has woefully failed to deliver on the NPP Manifesto promises on the local governance sector and should be scored 40% on her performance at the ministry and not the self-assessment score of 90% as Ghanaians are being made to believe.
“But for the President himself not committed to deepening and consolidating decentralization in Ghana, the local government minister should have been sacked after two (2) years in office,” a statement issued by Dr. Richard Fiadomor, President of CHALoG said.
Below is the full statement…
THE NINETY PERCENT (90%) SELF ASSESSMENT SCORE CERTAINLY NOT BASED ON THE FULFILMENT OF 2016 MANIFESTO PROMISES – ChaLoG TELLS LOCAL GOVERNMENT MINISTER .
The Chamber for Local Governance (ChaLoG) was greeted with shock when the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development assessed and scored herself as having delivered Ninety Percent (90%) of the promises made by the ruling NPP in its 2016 Party Manifesto at a Press Conference yesterday.
For the avoidance of doubt, ChaLoG wishes to re-state the specific promises made in the NPP 2016 Manifesto HIGHLIGHTS (page 53) with specific regards to Local Governance:
“The NPP will:
- Oversee the direct election of Metropolitan/Municipal/District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) within 24 months of election into office to coincide with the next District Assembly Elections in 2019 (Delivered though abortive).
- Strengthen the sub-structures of MMDAs through Capacity and adequate resource allocation (Delivered).
- Strengthen the role of traditional authorities within the local government system (Not Delivered and traditional authorities nearly taken out through the abortive referendum)
- Improve allowances paid to Assembly Members (Not Delivered and now we are been told it is against International Best Practice for part timers to be paid by MMDAs).
- Upgrade the Tamale Campus of the Institute of Local Government Studies into a modern state-of the-art institute to train local government practitioners and staff in Northern Ghana (Not Delivered).
- Abolishing the current practice of central government manipulation of the DACF through the procurement process ( Not Delivered and in fact worse than it was before the NPP government took power in 2017).
- Decentralizing and equipping the Land Valuation Board (LVB) to provide direct technical support on property valuation to MMDAs for enhanced revenue mobilization (Not Delivered).
- Ensuring the speedy enactment of the Municipal Finance Bill, initiated by the Kufuor-led administration into law, this will provide space to MMDAs to access the capital market for rapid socio economic development and partner the private to provide job opportunities to local people (Not Delivered) .
- Ensure the consolidation of all existing national sanitation policies, plans and programmes into a National Programme and Action Plan and establish a National Sanitation Fund to fund it (Not Delivered even though this particular is supposed to have been implemented by the Sanitation Minister) .
With the aforementioned promises and the non-delivery rate of the Minister, ChaLoG is therefore convinced beyond all reasonable doubts, that local government minister has woefully failed to deliver on the NPP Manifesto promises on the local governance sector and should be scored 40% on her performance at the ministry and not the self-assessment score of 90% as Ghanaians are being made to believe. But for the President himself not committed to deepening and consolidating decentralization in Ghana, the local government minister should have been sacked after two (2) years in office.
Long Live Local Governance
Long Live Ghana
Long Live ChaLoG
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana