Mahama Releases First Batch Of 71 District Chief Executive Nominees For 8 Regions

• President John Mahama has nominated his first batch of District Chief Executives covering eight regions
• The Western, Western North, Ashanti, Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Central, Greater Accra and Eastern regions are yet to get nominees
• Mahama terminated the appointments of Akufo-Addo's Chief Executives for Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies in January

President John Mahama has nominated a new batch of District Chief Executives for eight out of the 16 regions.

The first batch of nominees features 72 names. Ghana has 261 districts.

3News reported that the nominations were announced in a letter from the presidency.

The outstanding regions are Western, Western North, Ashanti, Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Central, Greater Accra and Eastern.

In a comment to YEN.com.gh, Richard Kirk-Mensah, the Western Regional Communications Director of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said the next batch of nominees could be expected before April 3.

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These nominees will spearhead local governance and development across the country if approved

The nominations are being made in line with Article 243(1) of the 1992 Constitution and Section 20(1) of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936).

The nominations must receive the approval of two-thirds of the district assembly.

Regional breakdown of the nominations

• Volta Region: 17 persons nominated out of 18 districts
• Oti Region: 9 persons nominated for all 9 districts
• Ahafo Region: 6 persons nominated
• Bono Region: 10 persons nominated for all 10 districts
• Bono East Region: 9 persons nominated for all 9 districts
• Savannah Region: 5 persons nominated for all 5 districts
• North East Region: 6 persons nominated for all 6 districts
• Western North Region: 9 persons nominated for all 9 districts

Mahama's vision for local government

During his campaign to be president, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party leader asserted that the Akufo-Addo administration had re-centralised local government, resulting in late and insufficient transfer of resources, poor local level participation, insufficient financial flows and weak and non-performing assemblies.

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The NDC manifesto pledged to decentralise local government with new policies like paying monthly consolidated allowances to all Assembly members.

The Mahama administration also wants to strengthen local-level participation through the election of district chief executives on a non-partisan basis by amending articles 243 and 246 (2) of the 1992 Constitution.

Structure of local government in Ghana

The assemblies serve as the highest units of local government in Ghana, categorised into three types: metropolitan, municipal, and district.

There are also sub-district political and administrative structures which are subordinate bodies of the assemblies.

These include sub-metropolitan, district, urban, town, zonal and area councils and unit committees.

They perform functions assigned to them by law or delegated to them by the assemblies.

Local government is enshrined in the constitution (Article 241/3), as is decentralisation (Article 240/2).

Article 35(5d) requires the state ‘to take appropriate measures to ensure decentralisation in administrative and financial machinery of government and to give opportunities to people to participate in decision-making at every level in national life and government’.

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The constitution also establishes the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and provides that ‘not less than 5% of the total revenues of Ghana’ be paid into it for use in district assembly capital works.

MMDCEs sacked by Mahama

YEN.com.gh reported that Mahama terminated the appointments of all Chief Executives for Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies from the Akufo-Addo era back in January.

The directors of the various districts were expected to take over as the local government heads in their respective districts in the interim.

The president also revoked the appointments of Assembly Members appointed under the Akufo-Addo administration.

Mahama is yet to appoint new heads of the various local governments.

Proofreading by Samuel Gitonga, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.

Source: YEN.com.gh