Local government ministry describes the activities of journalists in Accra | General news



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The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has developed a digital platform to simplify the issuance of logging permits in the 29 districts of Greater Accra Region.

The automation aims to improve the processing of permits and facilitate the conduct of business in the country.

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama, who announced this in Accra yesterday, said the project, which was pilot, would be replicated in other parts of the country based on its success.

Addressing the media when her department took its place in the "Meet the Press" series, Hajia Mahama said that a software program had also been developed for issuing building permits to local bademblies.

"In addition, a building permit software was developed for the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), as part of the" Business Enabling Environment "project. She said.

She explained that at WADA, the software was already operational and that users such as developers, architects, surveyors and planners had full access, while the local network and wireless network had been installed. and configured to be completed during the quarter. .

She added that the software would be introduced in the following meetings: Tema West, Ayawaso West, Ablekuma West, Krowor and Adentan Municipal.

Common Fund

Regarding the District Assembly Common Trust (DACF), the minister said the government, from 2016 to 2018, had significantly increased net transfers to the metropolitan, municipal and district bademblies (MMDAs).

She said that in 2017, 663.18 million GH ¢ were transferred to the MMDA, compared to 461.25 million GH in 2016, which represents an increase of 43.78%, adding that the total transfers MMDA net income in 2018 amounted to 863.5 million GH.

Hajia Mahama said the transfers had resulted in the provision of more than 1,200 sub-projects, including educational infrastructure, health facilities, water supply and sanitation facilities at the local level. all the countries.

She gave the breakdown of the categories of projects: 413 roads, 329 educational institutions, 115 health infrastructures, 199 water and sanitation infrastructure, 21 economic / market projects and five public services, among others.

Mobilization of the IGF

Hajia Mahama also highlighted the measures that had been put in place to improve the mobilization of internally generated funds (FGD) and said that the MMDA fee setting guidelines were reviewed and published in 2017, the mechanism that allowed Many MMDA's identify new items of recipes that, until now, were not in their books.

"These revenue mobilization interventions have improved the MMDA IGF. The IGF has increased by 3% between 2016 and 2017 and by 18% between 2017 and 2018.

The implementation of pragmatic initiatives has also allowed IGF to increase from 18% between 2013 and 2016 to 23.51% between 2017 and 2018, a share of the total revenue of the MMDA, "she added.

Election of MMDCE

The Minister of Local Government announced that the government had developed a national campaign strategy to raise public awareness of the referendum on the election of district, municipal and district chiefs (MMDCEs), which would run in parallel with the elections. at the district level in December of this year.

"The MMDCE election roadmap was designed to be implemented in four phases: the pre-referendum phase, the referendum phase, the post-referendum phase and the change management and strengthening phase. capabilities, "she explained.

Last Tuesday, the government tabled in Parliament a bill amending the appointment of MMDCEs after Cabinet approval.

Local governance system

Ghana has been implementing the system of decentralization and local governance since 1988.

Hajia Mahama said that, although significant progress has been made in the local governance system, some shadow areas needed to be further improved in order to deepen participatory governance and local democracy.

"One of these gray areas is the need to elect MMDCEs on a partisan basis in order to align with the election mode of leaders at the national level," he said. she said.

She added that as part of this process, the Ministry had conducted a series of stakeholder consultations and consultations in all regions and mentioned some of the groups that participated in the consultations, including the Special Parliamentary Committee on Local Government. , the National Commission for Civic Education (CNCE). ), the Electoral Commission (EC), the National House of Chiefs, political parties, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Federation of Muslim Councils of Ghana, as well as professional groups and civil society.

Rural development policy

Hajia Mahama also spoke of a government-led rural development policy that would serve as a guideline for coordinated service delivery and investment in rural communities.

She added that the policy was aimed at modernizing agriculture for rural growth and development, providing quality socio-economic infrastructure and services in a decent and secure environment, and maximizing potential of rural areas for the development and industrialization of rural enterprises.

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