Intensify Fight Against Illegal Mining — MMDCEs

The Conference of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) has called for the intensification of the fight against illegal mining to save the country’s environment and water bodies.

It also called for the supply of agricultural inputs to farmers on time to assist them to boost agriculture business at the metropolitan, municipal and districts assemblies (MMDAs).

Communique
These were contained in a communique issued by the 216 MMDCEs from all the 10 regions of the country at the end of their three-day conference held in Accra on the theme, “Implementing the Better Ghana Agenda: The sixth Milestone”.

The participants underscored the need for the Land Valuation Board and the Town and Country Planning Department to, as a matter of urgency, deploy additional qualified personnel to help the MMDAs in the valuation of all ratable property.

They further tasked the Local Government Service Secretariat to expedite action on meeting the human resource needs of all the MMDAs, while the head of the secretariat apply sanctions to its staff whose actions and inaction caused the MMDAs to fail the Functional Organisational Assessment Tool (FOAT) and in the process denied the MMDAs of the district development facility.

Release funds
The communique also recommended that the funds due the MMDAs and which were in arrears be released to ensure the implementation of the better Ghana agenda.

It also suggested that rural development grants for rural district assemblies must be established to reduce rural-urban migration.

“Inasmuch as we have the Urban Development Grant (UDG) for metropolitan and municipal assemblies, we must also establish rural development grants for rural district assemblies who need development most to prevent rural-urban drift. This must be geared toward reducing rural-urban migration,” it said.

“We urge all stakeholders in the local governance and decentralisation process to play their roles effectively, efficiently and proactively in the implementation of the better Ghana agenda,” it stated.

Resolutions
The MMDCEs resolved to support the vision, policies, programmes and projects of President John Dramani Mahama and also work hard to strengthen the assembly’s sub-structures and give meaning to the decentralisation and local governance system, as well as ensure transparency and accountability at the various MMDAs.

“We shall implement all presidential priority programmes at the local level for the benefit of our people, including the Street Naming and Property Addressing System (SNPAS), CHPS compounds and kindergartens,” it stated.

“We shall be more proactive and innovative in mobilising resources for development at the MMDAs, especially internally generated funds,” it stated.

The chief executives of the MMDAs also pledged to ensure that sanitation and waste management remained one of their top priorities.