Mr Antwi Boasiako-Sekyere, Eastern Regional Minister, has called on Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to collaborate effectively with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to strengthen the National Statistical System.

He said data on daily services of the MMDAs could best be captured by the Statistical Service and, therefore, urged the MMDAs to create the enabling environment to assist the integration of staff of the service into the assemblies.

Mr Boasiako-Sekyere made the call at the opening ceremony of a four-day sensitization workshop on the integration of the GSS staff into the MMDAs at Koforidua.

He said there was the need to transfer staff of GSS, who were abreast of the process and procedures of the MMDAs to the assemblies and urged those who would be transferred to be disciplined and be agents of change.

Dr Philomena Nyarko, Government Statistician, said as part of the effort of government to bring development to every part of the country, a system of decentralised administration had been established to enable MMDAs plan and administer development programmes based on the guidelines of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).

She said this had made it necessary to incorporate statistics into the work of the MMDAs to provide relevant and timely statistics and indicators to facilitate their work.

The Government Statistician explained that the aim of integrating statistics into the MMDAs is to help strengthen the National Statistical System (NSS).

Dr Nyarko said the transfer of GSS staff to the Local Government Service Secretariat (LGSS) was a major component of the reform process that was taking place within the national statistical system with the ultimate goal to have a District Statistical Department in all the 216 MMDAs.

She said the workshop was designed to give the staff being integrated a comprehensive understanding of the district assembly system and structure, mandate, processes and procedures to ensure their efficiency and effectiveness.