Accra, March 10, – Hajia Alima
Mahama, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, has admonished
regional ministers and coordinating directors to make revenue mobilisation
their topmost priority this year.
She said this would help improve
service delivery to stakeholders in particular to build a better Ghana, adding
that they must be able to identify their resources when they intended to
implement policies.
Hajia Mahama said this at the
signing ceremony of the 2018 Performance Contract between the 10 regional
ministers and regional coordinating directors in Accra on Friday.
She said the priority areas of
the Contract include local revenue generation, education, infrastructural
development, social protection, and institutional capacity development.
She said President Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s commitment to positioning Ghana Beyond Aid was driven by
initiatives such as the “One District–One-Factory,” “One Constituency One
Million Dollars,” and “Planting for Food and Jobs,” and that they would not see
the light without strong local governance institutions to drive them.
“This is mainly because the point
of implementation of these projects is at the metropolitan, municipal and
district assembly levels, which you supervise, and it is, therefore, timely
that the service sets realistic and achievable targets aimed at contributing
towards the implementation of these flagship projects,” she said.
She urged the directors to use
their experience over the years to guide and support the ministers to succeed,
and said government was appreciative of the numerous initiatives undertaken to
drive administrative decentralisation and ensure effective delivery of quality
service and would continue to support their efforts.
Hajia Mahama reminded both
parties that it was their collective responsibility to ensure their success,
urging the regional minister to support the directors to deliver on targets.
Dr Nana Ato Arthur, the Head of
Local Service, said the signing of the Performance Contract was necessary to
create a committed workforce for the performance of tasks geared towards the
development of every part of the regions.
He said it also marked a new
beginning of building strong institutional capacity since the Performance
Management System (PMS) provided feedback on the performance of staff and
institutions in achieving results.
Dr Arthur said the PMS was
categorized into four phases namely; the performance planning, progress
reviews, review and appraisal and reporting and decision making phases.
He noted that as more power and
resources were being decentralised to the local level, it had become
increasingly important that the local government system was strengthened in its
efforts to become more accountable to the Central Government as well as the
citizenry.
Dr Arthur said the PMS, if
effectively implemented, would afford the various departments in the regional
coordinating councils the opportunity to work to become more accountable, and
in the process move the regions forward, adding that non performing departments
would also be identified.
Mrs Bridget Katsriku, the
Chairman of the Public Service Commission, said the signing had become institutionalised
in the Local Government Service (LGS) as a contract of establishing
expectations and accountabilities for meeting a set of standard of execution of
excellence and the consequence for not meeting them.
She said it was aimed at
supporting high level leadership and accountabilities across the public service
including the LGS and also to serve the purpose of documenting high level
outcomes being sought by the respective RCC’s on government priorities,
policies and key reform themes.
Mrs Katsriku said the contracts
did not only set targets for institutions’ specific outputs, outcomes and
deliverables, which deal with meeting key policy objectives of the Government,
but also the general operational and administrative deliverables, which were
vital for performance efficiency and effectiveness.
She said the contracts were
indicative of the planned development programmes for each of the regions and
urged the directors and coordinators to see it as a tool for assessing their
performance not only annually, but as an ongoing and periodic assessment for
the progress of the governance of their respective regions.
GNA
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