ISL.5/PR.7

The Honourable Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu has stated that his Ministry would soon introduce a new disbursement formula to ensure fairness and equity in the distribution of the District Assembly Common Fund.

He said the new formula had been necessitated by over concentration of development projects in some District capitals, complaints over lack of transparency in the distribution of the Common Fund and agitations in recent times for the creation of new districts in many communities

The Hon. Minister made the remarks in an interview he granted the press after attending the Commonwealth Local Government Forum in London.

He stressed that the government was committed to good governance at the grassroot level and would ensure transparency in the disbursement of District Assembly Common Fund as well as the reduction in the incidence of corruption particularly in procurement and contract awards.

The Hon. Minister disclosed that work had already began at the highest level of government to effect the necessary constitutional changes to enable the people in the districts to elect their District Chief Executives as promised by President Kufuor in the run up to the 2000 elections.

In pursuance of the government’s poverty alleviation programme, the Minister revealed that his Ministry was teaming up with other sector Ministries to generate jobs and provide social amenities in the districts. An inter-Ministerial task force has accordingly been formed to tackle the perennial flooding problem in some parts of Accra.

The Ministry is also collaborating with other Non-government Organisations like the Habitat for Humanity for the provision of decent housing units at affordable rates in the Aowin Suaman district. The on-going Self Help Electrification programmes are also being actively facilitated by the Ministry to connect as many rural communities as possible to the national grid.

While in London, Hon. Baah-Wiredu paid a familiarisation visit to a waste disposal plant in Croydon, a Borough of London. The tour was to enable him to assess the suitability of the plant for use in Ghana.

In his interaction with officials of the High Commission, the Hon. Minister charged them to take active interest in the development of their respective districts and communities. Hon. Baah-Wiredu commended some retired professional civil servants for bringing their expertise to bear on the development in their areas and urged the staff to emulate that good example.

After a question and answer session, the High Commissioner for Ghana, H.E.Mr. Isaac Osei thanked the Hon. Minister for his presentation and reaffirmed that the development of the rural sector was the first step in the fight against poverty.

ISSUED BY THE
GHANA HIGH COMMISSION
LONDON