Member of Parliament for Adaklu in the Volta Region Kwame Governs Agbodza, has stated that he suspects the reason why the President has not appointed Metropolitan, Municipal, District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) is because government is unable to fund the activities of local government in their various jurisdictions in the country.
He pointed out that government is not able to fund the activities of local entities in the country because the common fund is running at a huge deficit, hence it is convenient for the government not to appoint them into office.
Mr Agbodza stated that the MMDCEs are not getting the funds that have been approved for them by parliament to pursue their local mandates in their various jurisdictions in the country.
He emphasized that Member of Parliaments (MPs) cannot longer wait for the delay in the President’s appointment of MMDCEs to aid them in accomplishing their mandates to their various constituencies in the country.
Mr Agbodza used his constituency as a case in point to say that the delay in appointing the local government executives across the country is affecting their constituents in the delivery of their mandate to them in the country.
He stressed that the delay in the appointment of MMDCEs is affecting the work of parliamentarians and the local assemblies in the country that must urgently be addressed.
Mr Agbodza said this in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on the New Day show on TV3, Monday, August 23.
He was commenting on the heels of the revelation by the President of the Chamber of Local Government (CHALoG) Dr Richard Fiadomor, to sue government over the decision that current MMDCEs should continue working until substantive executives are appointed to the posts. And also the news conference by the Director of Communications at the Presidency Eugine Arhin, saying President Akufo-Addo is done with the first phase of the appointment of MMDCEs and will soon appoint them to pursue their constitutional mandates across the country.
“You know what I suspect, government is unable to fund the activities of the local government. Government is unable to fund the activities of entities so it is a convenient way of saying ‘you can’t get your common fund’ because it is in a huge arrears as we speak”. Maybe because there is no Board the President can conveniently say ‘we are not able to make the decision to spend these monies and other things because we don’t have a Board’ and that is what they are doing”, he charged on the New Day.
By Barima Kwabena Yeboah|3news.com|Ghana