Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has entreated the Head of the Local Government Service to adopt effective strategies to mobilise revenue and rebrand the Service to deliver excellently on its mandate.
He, therefore, called for the plugging of leakages and ensuring fiscal discipline to deepen the decentralisation process.
The Vice President gave the advice when he commissioned a five-storey office block of the Local Government Service (LGS) in Accra, on Wednesday.
The 30-million Ghana cedis office complex has 600-seater auditorium, boardroom, library, terrace and 40 office accommodation for the staff.
It was funded by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund, and the LGS.
The object of the facility, he said, would ensure that public administration was in sync with the times and would stay relevant to its mandates and purposes.
The commissioning marks an important milestone in the history of the Service and local government administration in Ghana.
The Vice President expressed the belief that the facility would offer ample office accommodation and a conducive environment to motivate staff to give of their best.
“It is my firm belief that with a facility of this nature and an investment of such a magnitude, bystanders and everyone that hear of it will have certain expectation of the Service,” he added.
He urged the Service to aggressively leverage on digital technology in transacting its business to improve revenue mobilisation.
The Government had, over the years, made significant strides to bring governance closer to the citizenry, particularly with the establishment of the Local Government Service, Dr bawumia said.
He cited the creation of six new regions and 34 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in recent times by the Akufo-Addo-led Government, which was to advance that course and commended the sector minister for the feat.
“The establishment of the Service has ensured that public officers working at the local levels are answerable to the Local Government authorities and this is to promote accountability and facilitate development in our quest to improve the livelihoods of our citizens,” Dr Bawumia said.
The enactment of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936) has further strengthened the MMDAs to effectively play this role and take charge of the development agenda of the various communities.
“It is for this reason that Government is committed to ensuring the delivery of a responsive and robust local governance system to deliver the optimum aspirations of our people.”
Government’s intent and strategy to transform the Public Service (Civil & Local Government) administration system should be clearly outlined in the public sector reform programme, as contained in the Coordinated Programme for Social and Economic Transformation.
He urged the Head of Service, the Management team and the entire staff to work assiduously to broaden the horizon and blaze the trail in local government administration as dividend to the monumental investment by the nation.
“With this new edifice, it is time for the Service to rebrand itself to provide excellent services – strengthening local government structures, instituting time-tested systems and processes, adopting modern practices in human resource selection, retention and capacity development.”
Dr Bawumia expressed regret that global factors, which were beyond the control of government, had undermined the resource mobilisation efforts with direct implications for inter-governmental fiscal transfer to state institutions, particularly local governments.
“I wish to assure all that we have begun to see massive improvement in our economic situation, and I am very confident that we will have a handle on our financial matters to effectively resource the local government institutions to deliver on their mandate,” he said.
“As some of you may be aware, an empirical analysis of Internally Generated Fund (IGF) data of MMDAs conducted for the periods between 2010 to 2020 indicated that property rate formed just 20% of the total IGF of MMDAs.”
This is attributed to difficulty in identifying properties on the ground and no valuation data, among others.
Dr Nana Ato Arthur, the Head of the Local Government Service, in his welcome remarks, pledged to put the facility to good use to deepen the decentralisation process of the country.
He said the engagement of the Unified Property Rate Collection Platform, in line with legal provisions, would enable the Ghana Revenue Authority to provide support to the MMDAs to ensure effective revenue mobilisation drive.
“It is my expectation that the partnership would provide benefits to the MMDAs and the country as a whole.”
