Convener of the #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has called for the reformation of the country’s regions into provinces and counties to enhance the decentralization of governance.
According to him, the current formation of regional governance defeats the purpose of decentralization. Following this, he explained that proposal for election of MMDCEs instead of being appointed does not help in resolving the problem of low development in their respective areas.
Mr Vormawor noted that such an action could lead to inter-regional competitions and further fuel innovation and more development.
“So, I am thinking, let’s reconstitute them as provinces with governors or counties and governments where these are the people, we know that they are setting in place a team which is supposed to deal with the region… If you turn the process around such that you say whatever is generated from the region you keep 60% and give 40% to national, the 40% of national will be used to address inequities. For instance, in regions which are orphan regions, you can recentre them.
Mr Oliver Barker-Vormawor
He advised that “resource-rich regions” can become a hub as one cannot “necessarily develop the entire country at the same pace”. Mr Vormawor indicated that certain places can become a “lever to move your economy up”.
Governance is development
Emphasizing the need to reconstitute the regions, Mr Vormawor explained that the “idea” is that the “substance of governance is development” and must be brought down to the local government.
Describing it as the “big gamble on the constitution”, he questioned whether going ahead only to elect these individuals will solve some of the problems that are “inherent in local government in general”.
“Rather than amending itself, we have to rethink the framework. We have other places whereby instead of regions, our regions are not governance units per se. You may have a regional minister but it’s not a functioning bureaucracy that controls. Why don’t we reconstitute them as provinces?”.
Mr Oliver Barker-Vormawor
The #FixTheCountry Convener emphasized the need for development to be initiated. According to him, a true decentralization would have to occur in order for natives of regions to take active part in local governance and the allocation of resources.
Mr Vormawor disclosed that government can expedite the process by increasing the percentage of internally generated revenue to be kept by regions from 15% to 60%. He also advocated for the central government to take the remaining 40%.
“So that when you have a province, which then appoints its own health administrators, have persons who advise on planning and development at the regional level, we’ll start to think of our regions as bodies that are in charge of helping us develop. In fact, it brings the process of development closer to the people where they become more incentivized and they know the problems that are inherent there that Accra-based politicians do not know”.
Mr Oliver Barker-Vormawor
Mr Vormawor similarly bemoaned the huge salary gap between civil servants and Article 71 office holders such as Members of Parliament and Ministers of state.
He noted that it feels “inherently unfair” for everyone to contribute certain things to making the democracy work “for some to go home on so little”.
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