Local governance expert, Amon Nii Kotei has disclosed that decentralization of the nation’s governance has become difficult.
Speaking on whether there is proper and adequate political will to devolve power from central authority,;he was of the view that some areas have to be worked on. This, he said,;is because the political players are not ready to let go of decentralization and are also not ready to let the District Assemblies be on their own.
“Like even giving them let’s say 80%, no, they won’t allow it. There are so many controls that we have in the system so, it’s very difficult.
“For the District Assemblies, we will say they are devolved, because they use the devolution type of decentralization. But they work in hand with Ministries and some agencies but those areas are deconcentrated. Meanwhile, we expect them to have some interactions; something is not clear. If we have to devolve, we have to devolve fully.”
Amon Kotei
Touching on the seeming failure of the nation’s ability to properly decentralize,;he indicated that the nation could do more in decentralizing.
“Maybe I will consider giving what we have achieved so far, a 45. We could have done more but it’s not bad. When you want to compare it across West Africa, it’s not that bad.”
Amon Kotei
Contributing to the discussion, Peter Bismark Coffie, President of the Institute for Policy and Liberty Innovation sided with the view that devolving of power has become a difficulty which is not helping.
MMDCEs are not performing
He disclosed that due to this,;the MMDCEs over the years are not performing and also cannot measure the outcome of whatever they do within their confined areas.
Mr. Coffie averred that when it comes to legal and policy focus, the MMDCEs have done well in that regard.
“They even amended the local government act and decentralized policies to ensure that the nation ends poverty and get some educational infrastructures.”
Peter Coffie
However, he indicated that with institutional change,;human resource and the physical aspect of the focus, the MMDAs are not able to commit capital into projects.
Also speaking, Mark Ewisi Arkoh, PNC youth organizer stated, that the nation’s decentralization strategy is currently stagnant. He posited that a lot of reform needs to be considered to decentralize properly.
“It’s is either we decline or we are still stagnant where we are,;especially looking at the element that we have all these years involved in the decentralization programmes and projects that we run. And so, for me,;a lot of reform is needed in that particular area.
“Now we have the 2021-2024 reforms that have come out;and it is expected that it addresses the challenges that we’ve had in the past. A lot of reforms have been done;looking at where we started our decentralization from. We have had a lot of changes in our administration;and we would have to contribute to the success and the developmental agendas using this same tool,;which is the decentralization that we are running.” governance
Mark Arkoh
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