Scrap government appointees to district assemblies - Local governance expert

Europa

October 6, 2015 10:13 AM

According to him, the scrapping of the presidential appointment of assembly members had become necessary because the main idea of appointing technical people to complement the work of the assembly members had now become more partisan.

Dr. Eric Oduro Osae

Local governance expert, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae has backed calls for the scrapping of the President to appoint 30 per cent of assembly members of metropolitan municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs).

His comment comes on the back of the controversy which has surrounded the inauguration of metropolitan municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) today.

A local governance expert, George Kyei Baffour has described the said inauguration as illegal following what he referred to as the absence of appointees who constitute 30 percent of the MMDAs composition.

However, speaking on Accra-based TV3, Dr. Oduro Osae said "Previously, we thought that the 30 per cent government appointees will constitute expertise the local assemblies need to manage the business of the assembly. But history has told us that this particular 30 percent appointment have been diluted with party faithful and some of them not having the requisite skills that the assemblies require. So if it has been abused by government, then we better scrap it off and get all the membership of the assembly elected".

Deputy Local Government Minister, Emmanuel Agyekum has said that all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA’s) have submitted names of appointees to government thereby giving clearance to the inauguration of the MMDAs.

Europa