By Dorothy Frances Ward, GNA
Kumasi, Sept 24, GNA – Mr Stephen
Oduro-Kwarteng, Ashanti Regional Director of the Lands Commission, has called
for harmonization of the country’s land laws to ease the process of land title
registration.
Reforms to bring all the fragmented laws together
would not only help the people to understand the land tenure system, but ensure
transparency and accountability in the land administration system.
Mr. Oduro-Kwarteng was speaking at a land
forum for multi-stakeholders on the “land and corruption in Africa project”, in
Kumasi.
It was organized by the Ghana Integrity
Initiative (GII) under the “Integrity, Mobilization, Participation,
Accountability, Anti-Corruption and Transparency (IMPACT) Project”, with
funding from the German Federal Ministry.
The IMPACT project aims at empowering the
people to contribute to the fight against corruption by helping to promote and
increase integrity, transparency and accountability of public institutions and
businesses in the land sector.
It is also to build the capacity of civil
society groups to advocate for changes in policies and practices in the land
administration system.
Mr. Oduro-Kwarteng said although the
government through the land sector reforms project, had been able to bring all
the various land agencies together, there was still the need to review the laws
to make it easier for people to acquire and register their lands.
He announced that the Lands Commission had set
up a Clients’ Service Access Unit (CSAU), to sanitize the land administration
processes by eliminating staff involvement and land agents.
It was also meant to help remove delays in the
processing of land title registration, improve transparency at the Commission
and ensure efficient records management.
The CSAU had brought down corrupt practices
and boosted the revenue of the Commission by 40 per cent.
At the same time it had assisted to improve
the handling of general property files and tracking of state and client status
files.
He appealed to chiefs to keep records of lands
allocated to individuals to avoid multiple land sales.
Surveyors should also reduce their charges to
aid smooth documentation of land titles, he added.
Mr. Michael Okine, Coordinator of the GII “The
land and corruption in Africa project” said the vison was to fight corruption
and promote accountability and integrity in land administration in Ghana.
GNA