Ghana Districts - A repository of all districts in the republic of Ghana

Introduction
The Municipal Assembly is the highest administrative and political authority in the municipality and was established in 2004 by an Act of Parliament (Legislative Instrument 1589). It was elevated to a municipality in 2008 by LI 1864. It has deliberative, legislative and executive powers. The assembly was part of the former Ga District Assembly.

Structure of the Assembly
The Municipality consists often (10) electoral areas and represented in the general Assembly by elected and appointed Assembly members. The composition of the Assembly is made up of 10 elected members, 5 appointed members, two members of parliament representing Abokobi- Madina and Dome-Kwabenya constituencies respectively and the Municipal Chief Executive. The General Assembly is therefore made up of 18 members.

The General Assembly is headed by an elected Presiding Member with the Municipal Coordinating Director as the Secretary. To enable the Assembly perform its function of overall development of the municipality the following sub-committees and decentralized departments are established.

Sub-committees

Development Planning Sub-committee
Finance and Administration Sub-committee
Justice and Security Sub-committee
Works Sub-Committee
Social Services Sub-committee

Decentralized Departments

Department of Urban Roads
Department of Agriculture
Survey Department
Department of Social Welfare
Department of Feeder Roads
Department of Birth and Deaths
Department of Cooperatives

Subvented Agencies

National Commission for Civic Education
Electoral Commission
NADMO

Services

Ghana Education Service
Ghana Health Services
Ghana National Fire Service
Ghana Police Service

The Assembly currently has no permanent office accommodation and operates from a temporarily offices at Abokobi. Most of the decentralized departments are also in rented offices which are scattered in Abokobi and Madina. This situation makes co-ordination and monitoring quite difficult. The problem was identified in the previous plan and as a result a three storey office complex currently waunder construction.

The institutional arrangements for the implementation of this plan calls for well equipped and well staffed departments. Contrarily, most of the departments are ill equipped and lack the requisite staff to deliver effectively. This challenge was not adequately addressed during the 2006-2009 plan period.

To remedy the situation the Assembly will have to:

Complete the office complex and residential accommodations
Provide additional Office and residential accommodation
Provide enough logistics support by procuring vehicles and office equipments for the central administration and some decentralized departments
Facilitate the transfer of the required staff especially for social welfare and the works department
Improve Information, communication and technology
Embark on intensive capacity building programmes for staff
Recruit the required staff in the areas of city guards, task force and revenue collectors

Zonal Councils
The three councils in the Assembly, that is Madina Zonal Council, Dome Zonal Council and Abokobi Zonal Council well established and supporting the Assembly in its development efforts. The Dome Zonal council was provided with a permanent accommodation in 2008. The Abokobi Area Council is however still in a rented office accommodation. It is important to note that the Madina Zonal Council even though has its own office it is overcrowded and engulfed by the activities of market women and commercial drivers. The Assembly will therefore have to provide permanent office accommodation for Abokobi Area Council to facilitate its work and promote good governance.

It has also been noted with concern that the councils do not meet regularly neither do they interact with community members. This will have to be corrected to facilitate revenue mobilization and development. A stakeholders meeting would have to be institutionalized to facilitate interaction both by the councils and the Assembly.

Role of other Development Partners
The Assembly recognizes the enormous contribution of its development partners which includes the private sector, Donors and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Funding has been provided for the implementation of various interventions under the MTDP 2006-2009 and the areas of water, sanitation, education, agriculture and capacity building to mention just a few. It is therefore the Assembly’s commitment to provide the required enabling environment to attract private sector investment and donor support by providing the basic infrastructure in the various communities. Some of the Development partners and their areas of operation are listed as follows:

DANIDA - Water and Sanitation
CBRDP - Agriculture, Sanitation, education & capacity building
Action Aid Int. - Agriculture, Education and Gender
SISS - HIV/AIDS
CTF Foundation - HIV/AIDS
LIHOP Organization - HIV/AIDS
Democratic Youngsters - HIV/AIDS
Youth and Women Foundation - HIV/AIDS
Haatso Unity Movement - HIV/AIDS
Heifer International - Agriculture

Indicators of development in the Municipality
For the Ga East Municipal Assembly, achievement and not the availability of an elaborate plan must be the arbiter of planning. To be able to measure achievement therefore indicators play critical and significant role. The MPCU is however very much aware of the non availability of data as well as their reliability.

This not withstanding a few reliable data has been collated from the various sectors to enable the Assembly and its decentralized departments and stakeholders in general measure performance at the end of the 2010-2013 plan period. The indicators have been collated under the various sectors as indicated in table 1.15

Good Governance and Civic Responsibilities

To increase the number of people participating in civic education programmes
To support 6 officers to undertake various training programmes
To increase Internally Generated Revenue/fund (IGF) by 40% annually
To utilize 25% of IGF on capital projects
To complete Assembly complex, MCD and MCEs residential accommodation

Process Involved and Difficulties Encountered
The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) processes involved the collection of data on ongoing and completed projects and programmes. Issues considered during M&E activities or data collection included input and output flows in other to assess progress and identify constraints. In monitoring physical infrastructure, the focus of M&E has been on whether time schedules, cost and targets are according to Plan.

The M&E activities are undertaken by the implementing agency or department and important findings and recommendations are compiled into reports and presented at meetings organized by the MPCU. The format for M&E reports is also issued by the MPCU.

The difficulties and constraints encountered include non availability of M&E software for processing data, inadequate logistics and staff with M&E skills and uncoordinated data collection process. The processes of project establishment or implementation have not changed in the year under consideration. The Assembly and its decentralized departments continue to be responsible for the implementation of planned projects and programmes. In respect of the Assembly, procurement plans were prepared to facilitate the procurement of the services of contractors and consultants to undertake construction projects and consultancy assignments among others. The Departments of Urban Roads (DUR) as well as Feeder Roads also use the services of contractors and consultants for the implementation of road and road related projects and programmes.

Other implementation processes involved the direct use of the staff of implementing departments. These include Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs), Nurses, Community Development Officers, NADMO officers, Civic Education Officers, Cooperative officers and Circuit Supervisors. Others are Environmental Health Officers, Town and Country Planning Officers and Social Welfare Officers among others. It is imperative to mention that most of the projects implemented by the decentralized departments are people-based and includes training programmes, public education programmes, health care programmes and community care services. The others are child rights promotion, agricultural extension services, hygiene education programmes and waste management services.

In addition to the above, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) are into the implementation of various projects which includes HIV/AIDS interventions, provision of micro-credit facilities and alternative livelihood programmes. Apart from HIV/AIDS programmes which NGOs and CBOs implement solely, other activities are executed in collaboration with the relevant departments which includes Food and Agricultural Department and Department of Community Development. With regards to HIV/AIDS the Assembly’s role is highly skewed towards capacity building, monitoring and evaluation and workplace programmes.

The implementation of projects and programmes are not devoid of problems and challenges. Some of the development challenges are internal and the Assembly or the departments would have to make stringent efforts to remedy the situation. Others are external and as such the departments as well as the Assembly does not have much control. The way out therefore is to manage the challenges effectively.

Some of the challenges and problems are given as follows:

Delays in the release of funds for projects implementation
Non performing contractors
Absence of a master plan for the Municipality
Absence of research unit for T&CPD
Lack of and inadequate office space
Cross border disputes
Inadequate budgetary provisions
Inadequate human resource for project implementation
Inadequate logistics support especially for field work (vehicles, refuse trucks, sanitary tools, office equipments ect)
Undue delay in gazzeting the Assembly’s bye-laws
Lack of support from the police in executing bench warrants
Inadequate support from the Assembly
Poor coordination and monitoring of NGOs activities in the Municipality
Low priority given to social welfare services
Non availability of land for farming, waste disposal and construction projects

Refer to the pdf file below for tables.