By
Iddi Yire/Jesse Owusu Ampah, GNA
Accra, Feb. 23, GNA
– The 16 regional ministers and their respective regional coordinating
directors (RCDs) have signed the 2020 Performance Contract with the Ministry of
Local Government and Rural Development in Accra, which forms a benchmark for
their assessment.
Mr Kwasi
Adjei-Boateng, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development,
and Dr Nana Ato Arthur, the Head of Local Government Service, jointly signed on
behalf of the Government.
Hajia Alima Mahama,
the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, in an address read on
her behalf, said the objective of the contract was to improve performance by
providing the chief directors feed-back on how well or badly they were doing.
It is also to
discuss needed changes in their behaviour, skills, attitude or knowledge of the
job, thus bringing to the fore the strengths and weaknesses of chief directors.
She said when
results of performance assessment were published, the chief directors saw
clearly their level of performance as against the expected level of
performance.
“When this happens,
I expect Regional Ministers to encourage your chief directors and support them
to improve on their current performance,” she said.
“By so doing, it
will enhance their career development and bring about efficiency in the
management of the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs).”
Hajia Mahama said
the President was focused on achieving a Ghana Beyond Aid by economically and
socially developing Ghana from the grass root through policies such as the One
District, One Factory, One Village-One Dam, One Constituency-One Million
Dollars, Planting for Food and Jobs, and Planting for Export and Rural
Development.
She said though they
were laudable policies, they would not be effective without the supervision of
the RCCs through the coordination, backing, monitoring and evaluation of
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) programmes and
activities to drive the process.
“It is therefore,
timely to employ such a key strategy of measuring the performance of leadership
of the RCCs against set indicators towards the achievement of these policies,”
the Minister stated.
She said
additionally, the creation of new regions and districts came with additional
responsibilities for local government professionals and that they were expected
to use innovative ideas to transform the new RCCs and MMDAs from their infant
status to the desired economically viable institutions they wished them to be.
“I therefore, urge
the Office of the Head of Local Government Service to, as a matter of urgency,
develop special indicators to measure the performance of these new RCCs and
MMDAs to challenge them to the higher responsibilities that we desire them to assume.”
The Minister charged
the regional ministers and the RCDs to work hard to change the perception by a section of the
public that the Local Government Service was incompetent and insensitive to the
needs of their people.
“I am convinced that
it is with a view to changing this negative perception that your targets were
selected for the various thematic areas of your performance agreement.”
Dr Nana Ato Arthur,
on his part, said the performance contract was to support high level leadership
and accountability by the Local Government Service.
“Performance is
critical in creating a committed workforce needed to support Local and National
Development efforts”.
Some challenges
performance contracts had solved included slow delivery of services,
inefficient use of resources, disunity among employees, employee
dissatisfaction and duplication of roles and duties.
“Performance
contract, therefore, should not only be seen as a tool for assessing the
performance of RCDs but also as a mechanism for assessing progress of general
governance of respective RCCs.”
GNA