The head of the Local Government Service, Dr. Calistus Mahama has indicated that local assemblies cannot be solely blamed for their refusal or failure to undertake road maintenance within their localities.
He clarified that there are overlapping responsibilities when it comes to road maintenance and this sometimes, the situation makes it difficult for the local assemblies to be proactive.
“LEKMA [Ledzokuku Krowor Municipal Assembly] has a responsibility towards road maintenance but when it comes to road issues, it’s a responsibility between the local authorities and the Ministry of Roads, the Urban Roads Department and the Feeder Roads Department. It’s not been clearly differentiated.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”kFNBFzHOmO0QmcKkh6Hnf6Xffl92uzOe”]“So you cannot blame the local authorities when they sometimes sit aloof because this function has not been clearly differentiated,” he noted.
This comes on the back of a law suit filed against LEKMA over the bad road network in the area by one Margaret Acheampong.
Mrs Acheampong is praying the court to compel LEKMA to construct a section of a road leading to her house at the Teshie Nungua Estates.
She contended that she is a tax payer and pays her property rate to LEKMA therefore; it is LEKMA’s responsibility to construct roads in the area.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, Dr. Mahama admitted that local assemblies have responsibilities but they are unable to undertake their duties because “resource availability is not 100%.”
He indicated that if assemblies do not budget for road maintenance in a fiscal year budget, per the fiscal laws, they cannot spend money on the maintenance unless they wait for the following year.
“So there are two points here; there must be resource availability and it must be budgeted for.”
Dr. Mahama further explained that assemblies that quickly rehabilitate roads after demonstrations by residents may have already made budget allocation for that specific road or a politician may have instructed them to do so for political reasons.
“It is possible that that particular activity has already been budgeted for. There are penalties that come along. If you don’t budget for an activity and you go and spend, there are penalties; you can lose your common fund allocation.
“Secondly, you must also acknowledge that this is politics and sometimes even if the road has not been budgeted for and there is a great political risk, you will find politicians going in and trying to alleviate the kind of hardships that people are suffering from.”
Get involved or suffer
The head of the Local Government Service charged Ghanaians to get involved in the activities of their local assemblies.
He argued that if people sit aloof without taking part in decision making concerning their localities, development in their area will be painfully slow.
“Development comes from the bottom…so if you don’t put pressure on your assemblyman and he goes to the assembly and he doesn’t make a case for your electoral area, then you will be at the losing end because development is geared towards more advocacies.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @ osamidan