By: Nicholas Osei-Wusu
Central government has been urged to devise a means of adequately compensating Assembly Members with appropriate Allowances to commensurate with their mandate as conferred by the Constitution and the Local Government Act.
Per the laws, Assembly Members serve as key agents of Ghana’s decentralization and local governance structure and also constitute the District Assembly as the highest political authority at the metropolis, Municipal and district level.
This came to the fore during an Orientation for Members of the Mampong Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti region.
The two-day capacity building programme is part of a nationwide training for all Assembly Members to empower them with the requisite knowledge and skills to perform their mandate as agents of the decentralization and local government structure.
The event is being organized by the Ministry for Local Government, Rural Development and Decentralization in partnership with the Institute of Local Government, ILG and the respective Assemblies.
Facilitators from the LGI took them through carefully selected topics bothering on the local government and decentralization structures.
These included the various laws and enactment about local government, structures of the District Assembly, place of the Assembly Member in the hierarchy and functions of the local Assembly, the Assembly Member’s role in local economic development and leadership.
They also learnt about the Administration of Ghana, the Rule of Law as well as the legal mandate and authority of the MMDAs which have been conferred with Deliberative, Legislative and Executive powers to lead socio-economic development of their respective jurisdictions.
It came to light during the Orientation that, the local government law has granted Assembly Members immunity from police arrest either to or from Assembly Meetings.
It also came to the fore that, a properly constituted Assembly is the highest political authority with a deliberative, legislative and executive powers to take binding decisions for the progress of the districts, municipalities or metropolis.
At the end the of the training, Members of the Mampong Municipal Assembly called in the government to adequately resource all Assembly Members in the country to effectively perform their mandate as agents of local government.
According to them, to be able to discharge their responsibilities toward improving revenue mobilization for the various Assemblies and mobilizing their communities for environmental, health and sanitation needs, Assembly Members need resources such as vehicles and some funds to be mobile and also organize communal activities.
They again called in government to consider amending the District Assemblies Common Fund to make allocation to take up the payment of commensurate Allowances and end of service emolument to Assembly Members at the same rate across the board to address the prevailing inequality associated with the matter.
They asserted that, the present policy of allowing the MDAs to determine how much they could afford to Assembly Members at the end of their tenure, on an ‘ability to pay’ basis is unfair to most of the Assembly Members especially those in under resources areas while at the same time, burdening the Assemblies.
Speaking to GBC News after the training, some of the new members of the Mampong Municipal Assembly described the Orientation as insightful and fulfilling since it has exposed them to realities of their mandate as the elected Representatives of their Electoral areas.
Anthony Appiah, the Assembly Member for the Bosofuor Electoral Area said, “my expectations was to acquire knowledge to know what to do as an Assembly Member. And honestly speaking, my expectations has been met.”
“I’d now say that I know how to navigate as an Assembly Member. It’s a very good exercise that should have been done earlier than now.”
Another new Assembly Member, Solomon Amponsah of Asaam said, “as Assembly Members, there’re so many things we may not know. We thought that we, at least, learn the functions of Assembly Members and how to discharge our duties.”
“And truly, I’ve met my expectations because of what we went through. The programme has been successful and will help some of us.”
They called on the central government to adequately resource all Assembly Members across the country including the provision of vehicles to enable them discharge their mandate effectively.
The Mampong Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti region is made up of 49 members including three women and a deaf and dumb appointed by government to represent the interest of people with disability.
