Madam Mabel Amoako-Atta, Director, Management and Technical Services, Local Government Service Secretariat, has advised the staff to abide by the Code of Conduct by serving the state with neutrality and anonymity in order to deliver effective and efficient service.

She said it was also expected of staff to be non-partisan in the discharge of their duties at the respective districts to ensure efficiency that would enable the local government entity to contribute its best towards the country’s development.

Madam Amoako-Atta gave the advice on Friday when she addressed the second batch of students at a closing ceremony in the ongoing series of certificate programme in Local Government Administration for local government staff in Accra.

Expressing happiness about the concept, she challenged participants to build their capacities in terms of local government administration to bring about changes in local administration.

She, therefore, encouraged participants to use the knowledge they had acquired from the eight weeks programme to help develop their various districts and communities.

“Network with colleagues and support the Local Government Service to function well towards the delivering of efficient and effective services for our district assemblies and community’s development,” she said.

On the objectives of the programme, Dr Abdulai Darimani, the Acting Director, Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), noted that the certificate programme would respond to the professional requirements of operational staff of the Service with emphasis on the blend between theory and practice, leading to skills enhancement through experience sharing, individual initiative and research work.

He said it would bring into focus the structure and process of the certificate programme relative to the general continuous professional development course of the Local Government Service.

Dr Darimani explained that the continuous programme would offer the needed practical skills that would be very supportive to participants’ daily activities.

He urged participants to let the training, knowledge and shared ideas that they had acquired reflect in their day to day responsibilities at the district levels.

Explaining the selection criteria to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mrs Magdalene Kannae, Head, Gender and Social Development, said the 38 local government staff participants were from the 10 regions of the country but with priority given to people from the remote parts of the country.

She said the promotion of service delivery, as well as the improvement of service and standards of the local government secretariat in all the 10 regions motivated their choice of selection.

Mrs Kannae noted that participants were taken through 15 courses which included Theories of Governance and Local Governance, Human Resource Development, Revenue Mobilization, Project Planning, Local Resources Mobilization, Gender Mainstreaming, and Financial Management all in the context of local government administration.

Mr Moses Nyame, a participant and the course leader, told the GNA that the programme was educative and would help broaden their knowledge as well as make informed decisions in executing their jobs.

“This is a timely and insightful programme that has broaden our knowledge towards effective service delivery in our sector,” he said.

He, however, urged the organisers to organise such programmes for records officers in the various assemblies as it would help boost their knowledge.

Certificates were awarded to all participants.