A local government expert, Professor Kwamena Ahwoi, has proposed the reintroduction of the Inter-ministerial Coordinating Committee to drive the decentralisation process.
He said the committee, which should be chaired by the President, should be responsible for policy formulation and implementation.He made the proposal at his inaugural annual lecture last Thursday in Accra where he pointed out a 15-point programme of action for the future of democratic decentralisation for development.Prof.
Ahwoi, who directly, supervised and chaired the inter-ministerial task force that prepared the first major legislation on decentralisation local government in the country, the Local Government Law, 1988, Provisional National Defense Council Law (PNDCL) 207, said the proposal was to prevent extreme polarisation and partisanship that characterised the level of national politics. "What is important is which consequential amendments must be made to the 1992 Constitution.
Two examples stand out as pre condition on which a consensus must be arrived at before the local government system may be made partisan if we are to avoid a "BREXIT" type referendum," he said.He said there must be a consensus on the issue of the election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs), saying constitutionally, they could be elected without making the district assembly system partisan.Speaking on the theme, "Decentralisation, local governance and local development in Ghana: The past, present and the future," Prof.