By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
A local governance expert, Frederick Agyarko Oduro, has called for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to adopt international standards of corporate governance to strengthen decentralisation and improve local administration.
He said adopting corporate governance principles would promote effective and efficient management of local authorities, accelerate socio-economic development, and encourage greater grassroots participation in governance.
Mr Oduro made the remarks in an interview with GBC on the sidelines of a two-day capacity-building workshop for members of the Mampong Municipal Assembly.
The training is aimed at enhancing the knowledge and competencies of Assembly Members to enable them to effectively perform their executive, representative and deliberative functions, while also strengthening their role as agents of development within their electoral areas.
The programme is being organised by the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs in partnership with the Institute of Local Government Studies and the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), with experts in local governance serving as facilitators.
Speaking during the workshop, Mr Oduro advocated broader reforms to Ghana’s decentralisation system, stressing the need for MMDAs to adopt internationally recognised corporate governance practices.
He proposed that the General Assembly should function like a board of directors, with stronger oversight powers over the Municipal or District Chief Executive and the administrative staff.
“We’ve christened the training ‘Next Level of Leadership’. We’ve practised local governance for a long time, and I think we need to move to the next level. If you look at the private sector, you find it more efficient than the public sector. Corporate governance is the principle we want to adopt in public sector management,” he said.
Mr Oduro also questioned the legality of Members of Parliament serving on MMDAs and the allocation of portions of the District Assemblies Common Fund specifically to MPs, saying the practice requires further legal scrutiny.
The Mampong Municipal Chief Executive, Yakubu Issifu, said the Assembly had invested significant resources in organising the training because of its importance in improving the performance of Assembly Members.
“Let the training make an impact at the community level, which will in turn contribute to the development of the Mampong Municipality. At the community level, Assembly Members are held in high esteem, sometimes even more than the President. You must therefore live above reproach, and I am pleased that we have not received any negative reports about any of you,” he said.
The Presiding Member of the Mampong Municipal Assembly and Assembly Member for the Mampong New Town Electoral Area, Daniel Oduro, described the workshop as timely and beneficial.
He encouraged participants to apply the knowledge gained to mobilise their communities for development and improve service delivery at the local level.
During the workshop, participants received training on their executive and deliberative responsibilities, leadership, community mobilisation, ethics, governance and local government administration.
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