Accra-Monday October 4, 2021: The Senior Presidential Advisor, Mr. Yaw Osafo- Maafo has inaugurated the newly constituted Governing Council of the Local Government Service at a swearing-in and inaugural ceremony which took place at the conference room of the Senior Presidential Advisor at the President Annex in Accra.
The fifth LGS Council is chaired by Dr. David Wellington Essaw with the following members: Ing. Dr Nana Ato Arthur, Head of the Local Government Service (LGS); Madam Marian Kpakpah, representative of the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGD&RD); Dr. Kodjo Mensah-Abrampah, Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC); Madam Catherine Appiah Pinkrah, representative of the Ministry of Education (MoE); Hon. Irene Naa Torshie Lartey, Administrator of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF); Hon. Bismark Nkum, representative of National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG); Mr. Samuel Donkor, representative of the Local Government Workers; Dr. Nicholas Awortwi, Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) and Nene Sakite II, representative of the National House of Chiefs.
The rest are Hon. Gladys Tetteh and Mr. Derry Martin Bang-Bie, representatives of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Dr. Esther Ofei-Aboagye; and Rev. Mrs. Sanatu Nantogma, all nominees of the President.
The Council Members swore the oaths of office, allegiance and secrecy to serve the country in the office of the Local Government Service Council, uphold, protect and defend the Constitution as by law established and to bear true faith by upholding the sovereignty and dignity of Ghana.
Mr. Osafo-Maafo on behalf of the President congratulated the Chairman and Members of the Council on their appointment and wished them a successful tenure. He explained that the Chairman and Members of the Council were carefully selected from diverse professional backgrounds with each having considerable knowledge, expertise and experience on issues relevant to local governance.
He said the appointment of the Council comes at a time when Government is making frantic efforts to consolidate the tenets of decentralisation and local governance which are both indispensable for effective public administration and improved service delivery. He said the Council is obliged to secure and deepen decentralisation through provision of the needed direction for the effective operation of the Service.
He charged the Council to work as a team to augment the capacity of the RCCs & MMDAs to initiate, formulate plans and execute same through programmes, policies and strategies for effective resource mobilisation; promotion and support for productive activity and the delivery of infrastructure for socio-economic development.
The Chairman, Dr. David Wellington Essaw, expressed gratitude of the Council to His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana for the opportunity and confidence reposed in them to provide leadership for the Service. He assured that the Council would within its tenure work with unity of purpose to develop policy guidelines to handle matters relating to recruitment, training, promotion, discipline, arbitration and petition within the Service as provided for in the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936). He was optimistic that members would bring their experiences and expertise to bear to build on the good works of their predecessors while ensuing they work closely with all stakeholders to champion the good governance agenda.
In closing the ceremony, the Senior Presidential Advisor bemoaned the issue of low domestic resource mobilization especially in the areas of property rates and other property related taxes. Mr. Osafo-Maafo said a recent World Bank report suggests that property rates and other land-based taxes contribute an estimated 0.03% to Ghana’s GDP which is lower compared to that of the Gambia (0.5%), Mauritius (1%) and South Africa (1.5%). He challenged the Council to rise to the occasion and build on previous efforts made to improve domestic revenue mobilisation from property rates.
He said in other for the country to ensure a sustainable regime of voluntary tax and property rate compliance, there ought to be correlation between taxes paid and improvement in the social and economic well-being of the tax and rate payers. ‘’The interest should not just be on revamping generation of revenue from property rates and taxes, but we must also be interested in what the revenue is being used for’’. He urged the Council to collaborate with other agencies to improve the accounting functions and efficiencies of District Assemblies especially in revenue management.
Present at the inauguration were a Deputy Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Hon. O. B. Amoah; the Chief Director of the OHLGS, Mr. James Oppong-Mensah and other senior officers of the Service.