OHLGS – Tuesday June 12, 2019: The Acting Chief Director, Mr. James Oppong – Mensah and some senior officers of the Office of the Head of the Local Government Service (OHLGS) hosted an eight (8) member-delegation made up of government officials of the National Local Government Finance Committee of Malawi at its office premises in Accra. The delegation was on a 3-day learning visit to the country to learn at firsthand how Central and Local Governments in Ghana managed Inter-governmental Fiscal Transfer Systems including Performance- Based Grants.
The Ag Chief Director, welcomed the delegation to the Service and made a presentation on Ghana’s Decentralisation process with an emphasis on the administrative decentralisation mandate of the Local Government Service. Other areas discussed included protocols and capacity development interventions being implemented by the Service for the effective management of the decentralized sector.
The head of delegation and secretary of the Malawian Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Charles Kalemba expressed the team’s appreciation to the Service for the warm reception and applauded the achievements of the Service. He indicated that, the presentation revealed critical areas of interest of which he was hopeful that these could be applicable in the Malawian situation. He indicated that it was his hope that deliberations made would inform decisions in future learning visits and equip them with adequate knowledge/information to better deal with challenges being faced in Public Institutions in Malawi.
The team visited and interacted with a number of institutions namely; the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, Office of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and the Inter-Ministerial Co-ordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCC) in Accra. The delegation was expected to visit the Akuapem South Municipal Assembly on Wednesday, 12th June, 2019 to deliberate on other related issues.