Bolgatanga (UE), Jan. 7, GNA - Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, a former Minister and a principal Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), on Wednesday stated that 10 existing departments would be merged into six new ones to function effectively under a new decentralized policy. The mergers would now have 16 departments in Metropolitan Assemblies, 13 in Municipal and 11 in District Assemblies (DAs). He said the existing departments of Social Welfare, Community Development, Public Works Department, Department of Feeder Roads, Departmen= t of Town and Country Planning, Department of Rural Housing and Cottage Industries, would cease to exist and would be reformed into new ones since they were not set up by law. He said others included the Department of Animal Health and Production= , Agricultural Extension Services Division, Crop Services Division and Department of Agricultural Engineering. Speaking at a public Lecture in Bolgatanga on the topic: 93One step forward; the significance of LI 1961 in MMDAs Capacity Building", Mr Ahwo= i said the Legislative Instrument (LI) sought to operationalize the decentralized departments at the district level as part of departments of the District Assemblies (DAs) who would be subject to the control of the local authorities.

He added that the integration envisaged a composite budget system in which the DAs would embrace all the new departments, saying district level was a devolved level of governance. He said the effective implementation of the new system should have taken off in February 2010 but for a few bottlenecks and attitudinal change on the movement from civil service to the Local Government service. He mentioned some of the practical implications of the new system as limiting the authority of the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) over th= e DAs. Mr. Akwasi Opong Fosu, Head of Civil Service, called for the cooperation of stakeholders assuring them that the system was a professiona= l Local Government Service that would bring a lot of competences on board to discharge functions at the community levels.

He allayed the fears of stakeholders who thought the implementation wa= s going to strip them of their positions, status and power of decision making= .. Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, in his welcome address thanked the Local Government Service Secretariat for taking the bol= d step to get the Local Government Legislative Instrument 2009, L.I. 1961, passed. Though the new policy was silent over the role of the RCC and regional departments, the Regional Minister expressed the hope that stakeholders would deepen their understanding of the new system to maintain harmony and ensure effective administration.