Mankessim (C/R), July 31, GNA - The Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng has called on Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to be innovative to enable them to challenge the process of governance of the country.

"You are bound to fail, if you take things as they are", Mr Asamoah-Boateng stated and reminded MMDCEs that successful leaders did challenge the status quo.

This was contained in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of a three-day Mid-Year Review Conference of MMDCE from the Eastern, Volta, Greater- Accra, Central and Western regions at Mankessim in the Central Region on Friday.

The Minister urged MMDCEs to consult knowledgeable institutions in order to achieve leadership competence.

Mr Asamoah-Boateng mentioned environmental sanitation, local governance through decentralisation as the most critical issues facing the Assemblies and announced that he had formed a seven-member committee to bring up best practices in implementation of sanitation programmes. He reiterated his call on chief executives, who had the ambition to become Members of Parliament to resign from their current posts.

Nana Ato Arthur, Central Regional Minister called on MMDCEs to propagate the success stories of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to encourage those, who had not registered to do so.

The Regional Minister noted that the critical issue concerning the Scheme was how to sustain it and stated, "as managers of the Assemblies you should develop effective strategies to address the challenges that confront the Scheme."

He noted that the Capitation Grant has increased school enrolment by about 16 per cent and urged the chief executives to expand facilities to accommodate the spill over.

Nana Ato Arthur charged them to personally supervise the disbursement of the grant to ensure that no one misused it.

He urged them to support the Electoral Commission with the necessary logistics and to provide adequate security to ensure violent-free District Level Elections on September 12 this year. Mr Yaw Barimah, Eastern Regional Minister, who presided over the opening ceremony, reminded MMDCEs that they held the key to the success of government policies and programmes because they dealt directly with the people in the communities and stated that, the quality of the services you render to them will make them to appreciate the programmes. Mr D. A. Nyankamawu, Chief Director of the Ministry urged the Chief Executives to use the review to strategise for emerging initiatives and critical concerns on local governance. Sixty-four MMDCEs are attending the conference.