The Head of the Local Government Service (LGS) has announced that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and key decision makers at the assembly level whose assemblies underperformed on the 2019 District League Table are to be sanctioned.

The sanction, he explained, would come in the form of delayed promotion of the key actors in the management of the districts.

On the other hand, there would be reward packages for those who do well.

Dr Nana Ato Arthur who was talking to the Ghanaian Times on the sideline of Performance Contract Agreement signing ceremony with the 16 Regional Ministers and Coordinating Directors explained that the essence of the performance contract is reward and sanctions, adding that, “those who do well we are going to reward them and those who do not, we would sanction them.”

This is not the time the head of LGS has announced sanctioning non performing MMDCEs.

Indeed, since the Performance Contract Agreement was instituted in 2018 as a tool to measure the effectiveness of the various MMDCEs in service delivery in the areas of health, education, sanitation, among others, several warnings have been issued to warn the decision makers at the assembly level.

But we are yet to see a single MMDCE or key actors in the management of the districts being called out for underperforming.

We all know and see the performance of many MMDCEs in the various communities which call for some attention yet no one is punished.

When one takes a look at many communities across the country, particularly at the district level where sanitation, bad roads, poor drainage and environmental degradation are major problems, one cannot but wonder why MMDCEs in such areas are not being sanctioned.

Perhaps, this is the reason why the District League Table has been instituted and we are hopeful that sanctions would be applied this time to ensure that MMDCEs live up to expectation.

We expect that the MMDCEs render quality and accountable service to the people and when they do that there would be no need for any sanctions.

But if they continue to render poor service and not meet the target, we cannot but support the LGS to deal with them.

Our advice to the MMDCEs is that they have been tasked because they have been found to be competent and must therefore work hard to transform their communities and the entire country for the benefit of the people.