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The establishment of six extra regions in 2018 was intended to accelerate development, according to Mr. Osei Bonsu Amoah, Minister of State-Designate, Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization, and Rural Development.
In order to deepen democracy, accelerate regional development, and bring administration to the people’s doorstep, the government, according to him, chose to add the six new regions to the initial 10 regions.
This was stated by Mr. Amoah on Tuesday when he stood before the Appointment Commitment of Parliament to be screened. Mr. Amoah is also the departing Deputy Minister of Local Government, Decentralization, and Rural Development.
The Minister-Designate was questioned about the existence of offices by Mr. Henry Quartey, a member of the Appointments Committee of Parliament and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso Central of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
In his answer, Mr. Amoah pointed out that the Ministry of Regional Reorganization and Development, headed by Mr. Dan Botwe, used to exist under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo’s prior government.
He claimed that the Ministry had been merged into the Ministry of Municipal, Decentralization, and Rural Development, with Mr. Dan Botwe serving as the Minister, during President Akufo- Addo’s second tenure.
“You could see that a lot has been done, the statistics showed that indeed, for the six regions, they’ve become very fortunate, fortunate in the sense that the kind of drive that the Minister led in getting these regions created, which indeed, is phenomenal, it is history,” O.B. Amoah stated.
He claimed that a lot of work had gone into creating the six new regions, and that as of their most recent tally, out of the 50 projects they had identified, about 33 had been finished and the remainder were in different states of completion.
He referred to the Western North Region’s Regional Coordinating Council Office building as an ultramodern structure.
The regional officers of the different government organizations have been assigned to each of the six newly established regions, according to Mr. Amoah.
“And I think if we continue and have more resources, a lot more can be done,” he said, referring to the three Regions that were created out of the old Northern Region.
Regarding the duties of district chief executives, Mr. Amoah stated that the first thing they must do is understand the legislation.
“This is what the law says you can do, these are your powers under the law, if you are not able to execute your mandate, it means you are not doing your work well.”
According to him, the law requires Chief Executives to give notice, request updates from offenders, even request change, and then serve notice before moving forward and, if feasible, demolishing the structures.
“Even for public spaces, you don’t need to go through all these, for public spaces you just go ahead and demolish because that structure is not required to be at that place.”
He explained that he could not site the building there because the property in issue does not pertain to the offender.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr. Quartey, was praised by the Minister-Designate for leading the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area’s attempts to remove illegal buildings.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
