{"id":404982,"date":"2018-03-01T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T06:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=404982"},"modified":"2018-02-28T17:19:31","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T17:19:31","slug":"give-ama-control-ensure-proper-sanitation-accra-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/03\/give-ama-control-ensure-proper-sanitation-accra-mayor\/","title":{"rendered":"Give AMA more control to ensure proper sanitation – Accra Mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah has blamed the failure to ensure the provision of social services including adequate sanitation in the metropolis on the Assembly’s lack of total control over these services.<\/p>\n
According to him, despite being responsible for the development of the capital, the Assembly has to contend with other agencies which have the primary responsibility for certain key social services.<\/p>\n
He added in the more developed nations, the local assemblies have greater control over the development of their jurisdictions, enabling them to easily implement any development agendas in the interests of the citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou travel around the world and are proud to go to certain megacities and see things over there. But what is the governance structure in those cities? I sit here as the Mayor of Accra but I don\u2019t control the Ghana Police Service or the Ghana Health Service so I don\u2019t control all the clinics in Accra. These are all complementary factors that could factor in your planning of the city,\u201d he said at the launch of The Ghana Action Series, a campaign by One Ghana Movement and Citi FM<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Likening Accra to Pizza, he lamented that different agencies of state each control ‘slices’, leaving the AMA with the difficult task of coordinating all these bodies to ensure the development of the capital.<\/p>\n He insisted that unless the AMA and its officials are given more control in the management of Accra, issues with sanitation might never be fully addressed.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are left to handle one side of the city; the city is like Pizza, the AMA has one side and a Ministry has another portion. If we don\u2019t address the issue holistically, we\u2019ll come back to the table, that\u2019s where my concern is. If we don\u2019t address the governance issue critically, we\u2019ll be talking to the Ministry of Sanitation, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly differently. In many cities that have been ranked as the cleanest city, the governance issue is very clear. The city is directly in charge of all operations and then you can call the shots,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n