The Head of the Local Government Service, Prof Lord Mensah, has charged members of the sixth Local Government Service Council to drive visionary leadership, accountable governance and exemplary institutional performance across all 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs)
He gave the charge on Thursday at the opening of a two-day retreat for the council at the MJ Grand Hotel in Accra, where members met under the theme “Strengthening Leadership, Governance and Institutional Performance in the Local Government Service.”
“The effectiveness of our 261 MMDAs ultimately rests on the quality of leadership, governance and institutional performance that this council inspires,” Prof Lord Mensah said.
“This theme therefore reminds us that leadership must be visionary, governance must be accountable and institutional performance must be exemplary.”
He reminded members that the Local Government Service Council, established under the Local Government Service Act 2016, Act 936, carried the responsibility of providing strategic policy direction, promoting institutional development and ensuring the service remained responsive to Ghana’s decentralisation agenda.
Prof Lord Mensah said the governance landscape was shifting rapidly, with rising citizen expectations, digital transformation reshaping public administration, increasingly complex local government financing and greater demands for accountability placing pressure on institutions to keep pace.
He told council members that equipping themselves with contemporary knowledge and practical insight was not a matter of choice but of obligation.
“Continuous capacity development is therefore not a luxury for governance bodies, but a necessity,” he said.
The retreat, which ran from June 26 to 27, was designed as a platform for knowledge sharing, strategic reflection and engagement on ethical issues shaping local governance.
Sessions cover leadership and accountability, the Local Government Act, digital transformation, local government financing and the policy implementation of medium-term national development plans.
Prof Lord Mensah said the purpose of the sessions was to deepen the council’s collective capacity to discharge its governance, oversight and policy responsibilities more effectively, and urged members to measure every discussion against a single question.
“How does this strengthen leadership, improve governance and enhance institutional performance in the Local Government Service?” he said.
He set out clear expectations for what the retreat should produce, saying council members should leave with a sharper understanding of their roles, a deeper appreciation of the legal framework guiding them and actionable priorities for strengthening institutional performance across the service.
Prof Lord Mensah also stressed the need for the retreat to reinforce collaboration among the council, management of the service and key stakeholders, so that governance decisions at the council level translated into tangible service delivery improvements for citizens on the ground.
The sixth Local Government Service Council is the statutory governing body mandated under Act 936 to provide policy direction for the Local Government Service, which manages staff and institutional systems for the 261 MMDAs.