Dan Botwe, the Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, has said Ghana can boast of qualified and quality human resource at the local governance level, however, these officials allow political interest to overshadow professionalism.
Speaking on Town Hall Talk on Asaase Radio on Friday (24 September), Botwe said the local government officials are highly trained to fully understand their duties, identify the problems in their respective areas and to provide solutions, however, their political ambitions prevent them from fully executing their mandates.
“We have very well trained local government officers. Many of them are very well trained people and if you look at the level of educational exposure of those working at the assembly, that is the local government service, you would be marvelled,” Botwe, who doubles as MP for Okere in the Eastern Region, told his host, Kofi Abotsi.
He added: “And fortunately, they get support from projects and some funding to facilitate continuous capacity building and as such we have a very efficient management system at that level. So they have the capacity to ordinarily perform their duties.”
Political considerations
“The whole issue is about administration, versus the commitment and the political outcomes. So we have somebody who thinks that because I will be elected and because anything that almost goes on wrong in the district is blamed on the elected persons, so at times there are deliberate attempts to sabotage one another at the level.
“We now have Social Welfare all decentralised and what is supposed to be done, and then the resources that come, who allocate these resources to the appropriate offices, especially when you have political outcomes then it becomes a bit tricky. The executives there concentrate on projects that would gain them political points only than what really the people need”.
Watch the full interview below:
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