Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Private Sector Actors’ Complain Over Poor Relationship With MMDAs


Lack of a symbiotic relationship between members of the Association of Small Scale Industries (ASSI) and officials of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Northern Region is making it difficult for businesses to grow, a new research has revealed.

The private sector is often touted as the engine of growth to Ghana’s emerging economy considering its role in employment creation, foreign exchange, source of raw materials for medium and large scale industries, improvement of standard of living especially in rural areas, among others.

However, unfavorable fees being charged by officials of MMDAs in the region in the form of tax seemed to make it difficult for many of these businesses to survive in the phase of many challenges in the nation’s economy.

According to a research report on the involvement of Private Sector Organisations (PSOs) in taking decisions which affect them at the MMDAs level – A Case study of the East Mamprusi and West Gonja Districts, and the Tamale Metropolis; there was lack of education for PSOs on the fee fixing process by MMDAs.

Also, the report said fees paid by PSOs affect their businesses with the most cited effect being a reduction of their business income. This was because, the fees paid by PSOs were too much whereas staff of MMDAs thought it was okay, Saeed Abdul-Moomen, Chairman of the Northern Regional chapter of ASSI disclosed these to the media at a press conference in Tamale.

He explained that the research gathered that PSOs were not involved in the fee fixing process at the MMDAs whilst Assembly officials involved in the fee fixing lacked the knowledge in that aspect.

The report he said highlighted the presence of ASSI in the districts which was known to their members but largely unknown to other persons in each district. Besides, ASSI members thought that the MMDA authorities did not respond positively to their request whenever they approached them, and described the level of satisfaction of services rendered by government establishments as low.

Thus, the report recommended that a dialogue process be started in each MMDA between ASSI and the MMDAs staff who had the power to take decisions. Adding, it said their dialogue should intend to project ASSI’s image in the MMDAs whilst ASSI members should also consider organizing some events such as voluntary work in the spirit of corporate social responsibility, town hall meetings and inviting other stakeholders to their functions, especially MMDA staff, media, among others.

It also recommended the involvement of PSOs by MMDAs in decision making regarding the thorny issue of fee fixing and organizing more training programs for PSOs on public-private partnerships and other business skills, among others.

The research was commissioned by the ASSI and Kalo Consult, a Ghanaian firm offering consultancy services in the area of development including social and business research. The research was conducted between 7th and 18th December, 2011.

The overall objective of the research was to indentify the extent to which PSOs were involved in taking decisions that affected their businesses at the various MMDAs in the region. To this end, there was the need to assess the presence of PSOs in the districts, the adoption of some elements of group dynamics such as regular meetings and key discussions.

The research also set out to assess the level to which the PSOs knew the processes and the people involved in making decisions at the district levels as well as the impact of these decisions on the business of the PSOs.

Other specific objectives were to find out how services to PSOs could be improved as well as the benefits of involvement of PSOs in decision making at the MMDAs.

The methodology and tools used for the research included focus group discussions, key informants, interview with private sector operatives, Assembly members, staff from the MMDAs, secondary data collection from MMDAs as well as desk review.

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