Assembly members build capacity

A one-day capacity building workshop on public relations and complaints procedures for schedule officers, civil society organisations, presiding officers and complaints committee members from ten selected metropolitan and municipal assemblies in the country has been held in Kumasi.

The selected participants were drawn from the Gomoa West, Shama, Asante Akyem South, Sunyani West, Shai Osu-Doku and Ho West district assemblies as well as the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly.

Pilot programme

The theme for the workshop was “Building Capacity for an Effective Public Relations and Complaints Committees (PRCC).” The workshop which was held as a pilot programme, was organised by the secretariat of the Inter-Ministerial Co-ordinating Committee in collaboration with the UNDP. The objective was to strengthen decentralisation policies of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.   

Addressing the participants, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Sarpong, was hopeful that the workshop would build the capacity of the presiding members, schedule officers of various complaints committees and civil society groups to enable them to engage the public in a transparent manner on matters relating to the MMDAs. 

He said of particular importance was how they applied their newly acquired skills with regard to correcting administrative injustice and abuse of power by staff of the MMDAs.

Quality service delivery

He said Public Relations and Complaints Committee (PRCC) outfits should not only concern themselves with matters of abuse of office and power, but must also ensure quality service delivery in a manner that would continuously inform and shape the performance of staff of the assemblies.

He stressed the need for complaints committees to ensure that MMDAs were accountable to the people, to elicit positive response from them in terms of their participation in governance and in the discharge of civic responsibilities such as the  handling and payment of levies and taxes.

Human resource capacity

In his welcome address, the Head of the secretariat of the Inter-Ministerial Co-ordinating Committee (IMCC), Dr Callistus Mahama, said subsequent to the implementation of the decentralisation process, there were still constraints in  implementation processes, as a result of a lack of logistical and human resource capacity.

The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Affail Monney, suggested that schedule officers of the various assemblies be equipped and assisted to enable them to handle public relations and complaints procedures effectively.

 He said the establishment of the complaints committees was as a result of recommendations from the public requiring that the Public Relations and Complaints Committees be strengthened to enhance the decentralisation process in the country.

Other speakers at the function included Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi, a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).