Member of Parliament for Sene East, Dominic Napare
The Member of Parliament for Sene East, Dominic Napare, has urged for a significant enhancement in local governance through increased stakeholder participation.
Delivering a statement on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, February 18, 2025, the MP grounded his call in the principles laid out in Ghana’s Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), emphasizing the need for practical implementation of participatory governance at the district level.
According to him, the constitutional mandate for decentralization, as contained in the 1992 Constitution, makes decentralization mandatory and provides that this country (Ghana) put in place “a system of local government and administration which shall, as far as practicable, be decentralized.”
He stressed that despite the legal framework provided by the Local Governance Act, there remains a significant gap in real-world application, particularly in engaging local stakeholders.
The MP pointed out that Act 936 gives “elaborate and extensive opportunity and guidelines to Local Level Stakeholders to effectively participate and provide oversight to ensure efficient service delivery,” yet this is not the case to a large extent.
He specifically mentioned the lack of stakeholder involvement in crucial processes like the preparation of by-laws and fee-fixing resolutions, which are vital for local revenue generation and community engagement.
“The extensive involvement of Stakeholders in the determination of how much rate, fees, and fines they would be paying during the fee-fixing formulation stage will reduce the assemblies’ cost of sensitization and education on citizens’ tax obligations,” he argued, adding that such involvement could lead to smoother tax collection processes and increase local development funds.
He also brought attention to the inclusivity provisions within the Act, advocating for the protection of marginalized groups and the promotion of their participation in governance.
“If District Assemblies were to implement these principles to the letter, by instituting programs of pro-women and pro-marginalized affirmative actions, the issue of abysmally low participation of women in governance, particularly local governance, would have improved,” he noted.
To address these issues, the MP for Sene East proposed several actionable steps. He suggested a need for “serious sensitization of the public and also local government practitioners on participatory Governance at the Local Level under Act 936.”
He recommended that the Ministry of Local Government and District Assemblies engage in extensive educational campaigns about the Act’s provisions, particularly sections 40 to 48, which deal with participatory governance.
He further advocated for the inclusion of participatory governance metrics in the District Performance Assessment Tool (DPAT), stating, “I suggest that the Local Government Ministry include participatory Governance at the Local Level as a qualifying criterion to the District Performance Assessment Tool (DPAT).”
Napare concluded his statement by calling for a renewed relationship between local governments and citizens to foster trust and effective governance. “The citizens need to be more active and engaged, while the Assemblies be more responsive and effective.
These provisions must be operationalized and practicalized for popular participation to become a reality,” he said.
His statement attracted supporting comments from other MPs who called for the need to adopt the recommendations proposed by the Sene East MP in pursuit of a more robust local governance structure.
GA/KA
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