The Bill also provides a clear accountability framework, to ensure that the activities of the Local Authorities reflect the wishes of the people they serve.

The Chairman of Parliament’s local government and rural development Committee, Dominic Azumah Azimbe told Citi News one of the highlights of the bill is that the administrators of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) would be able to invest the money into securities to earn interests in case the monies cannot be immediately disbursed.

He said, although some Ghanaians expected the bill to emphasize the election of District Chief Executives (DCEs), the bill did not capture such.

According to him, the house concluded that the election of DCEs was a constitutional matter that could not be quickly demanded through the local government bill.

“We would have reflected our minds to the concerns of Ghanaians that we should elect District Chief Executives but unfortunately for us per what happened on the floor [in parliament], it is a constitutional matter so until the constitution is amended, we cannot introduce any new thing on that aspect of in the act, ” Dominic Azimbe said.

‘Call for election of DCEs’

Meanwhile, some Ghanaians ad policy think tanks have increased call for the election of District Chief Executives to ensure accountability and also avoid conflicts between locals and appointed DCEs.

Currently, on the President is mandated by law to appoint DCEs to act as the local representative of government however some communities have challenged the appointment of many DCEs for various reasons that include lack of trust in the appointees.

By: Duke Mensah Opoku & Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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