A local governance analyst, George Kyei Baffour has called on any interested Ghanaian to challenge the government in court over a directive to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to take over the day-to-day administrative functions of their assemblies.
A press statement issued by the Ministry of Communications on Friday indicated that “all Regional Ministers, pursuant to Article 246(1) of the 1992 Constitution the MMDAs stand dissolved by the close of work on 14th March 2015.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”Mv6mooa51KwKFgnGll8Xd1jNAMNYYLSL”]The statement further indicated that “Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives(MMDCEs) shall be responsible for the day-to-day performance of the executive and administrative functions of their Assemblies under Article 243(2) (b) and (c) of the Constitution and Section 20 (3) (b) (c) and (d) of the Local Government Act, 1993 (Act 462).”
The dissolution of the MMDAs has become necessary following the Supreme Court’s order for the scheduled District Assemblies to be called off.
However the Local Government Ministry’s decision has drawn some criticism from some Members of Parliament(MPs) who believe that the move is unconstitutional.
Speaking on the issue, the Former President of the National Association of Local Government Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), said government is deliberately encouraging what he says is an unconstitutional move to promote its own agenda without scrutiny at the local level.
George Kyei Baffour said the government cannot be allowed to continue operating and disregarding the laws of the country.
He believes government is taking such a move in order to “give advantage to the NDC.”
“I believe that government wants MMDCEs to act in order to be able to do things their own way and circumvent processes and procedures…”
“You cannot have one government doing wrong things successively . That is not fair to Ghanaians so I am saying that I will encourage people to go to court,” Kyei Baffour added.
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah