Accra – Thursday September 19, 2019: Senior Staff of the Office of the Head of the Local Government Service (OHLGS) have been sensitised on the World Bank funded Ghana Secondary Cities Support Programme. The GSCSP, which spans a period of five (5) years, is to improve urban management and the delivery of basic urban services in twenty five (25) participating Municipal Assemblies (MAs) in the erstwhile ten (10) Regions.
At a workshop to orient senior staff of the OHLGS on the Programme, the Procurement Specialist under the programme at the OHLGS, Mr Benjamin Ankrah, explained the various components (Local, Regional and National windows) of the programme to participants. He highlighted the status of implementation and the performance assessment issues raised during the just ended supervision mission by a World Bank team in September 2019. According to him, the programme uses country systems with specific programme indicators that trigger fund disbursement upon fulfillment and after assessment and verification. As such disbursement of funds would be dependent on the results achieved.
The implementing agencies under this programme consist of twenty-five (25) Municipal Assemblies, the erstwhile ten Regional Co-ordinating Councils, the Office of the Head of Local Government Service (OHLGS) and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). Other collaborating partners are the Environmental Protection Agency, the Land Valuation Division (LVD) of the Lands Commission, the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA) and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
In terms of roles and responsibilities under the GSCSP, MLGRD is the lead implementing agency for co-ordination, policy support and monitoring. MLGRD is to ensure the timely release of funds to implementing agencies; assessment of Assemblies using the Districts Performance Assessment Tool (DPAT) and publication of the results; and co-ordination and management of the annual performance assessment by an independent verification agent. The OHLGS on the other hand is to ensure appropriate and adequate staffing of the RCCs and participating MAs; provide training and capacity support services to RCCs and MAs. The RCCs also in line with their mandate are to provide coordination, monitoring and technical backstopping to MMDAs under their jurisdiction to improve their performance.
The Ghana Secondary Cities Support Programme commenced in February 2019 and is expected to end in June 2024. It was formulated to consolidate the gains made under a successor programme, the Local Government Capacity Support Project (LGCSP), which ended in June 2018.