Opening Ceremony Of Certificate In Local Government Administration Programme

The Head of Local Government Service (LGS) Dr. Callistus Mahama has asked staff of the Service to re-double their efforts in rendering quality service(s) to clients. To this end, he asked them to equip themselves with the necessary skills to deliver.

Dr. Mahama was speaking at the opening ceremony of a short pilot scheme-based course in Certificate in Local Government Administration at the Institute of Local Government Studies, Accra. He further noted that over the years capacity building in the Public Service had not been properly co-ordinated in terms of those who benefitted. It was therefore incumbent on the LGS to make a difference by carefully targeting all staff within the twenty-seven (27) classes as beneficiaries in order to derive the maximum impact of such courses. The course attracted forty-two officers selected from the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the country.

Additionally, Dr. Mahama stated that service delivery at the MMDAs should be the primary concern of all staff irrespective of their professional class. For that reason, more attention should be paid to staff of the newly-created classes like the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Procurement, Social Welfare and Community Development to mention but a few as beneficiaries for skills improvement. He went further to exhort participants to add practical value to the certificates they would shortly be awarded through the improvement of service delivery to our cherished clients.

Hence, the above should psychologically prepare them to be on standby for more training as and when required without any hesitation whatsoever. Such attitude would ensure efficiency and effectiveness of all staff within the Service. The Head of Service entreated the participants to take the programme seriously because it will be a pre-requisite for their career progression.

In a welcome remark, the Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies, Dr. Esther Offei Aboagye noted that the Institute was well-positioned to deliver all kinds of training programmes to staff of LGS in order not to compromise efficiency and effectiveness of the Service. She again, observed that the landscape of local governance is changing rapidly as Chiefs and local communities are now more interested in issues that affect them through the social accountability discourse. In this connection, staff of LGS should be responsive to these changing trends in order to remain relevant in local governance.

The leader of the participant expressed his profound gratitude to the leadership of LGS for the unique opportunity as beneficiaries of the course. He also noted with satisfaction that most of them were selected from the deprived MMDAs, which he saw as an incentive for them to even work harder after the course.

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