Ninety-seven (97) Assembly Members consisting of 64 elected members, 29 government appointees, 3 Members of Parliament and the Metropolitan Chief Executive have been sworn-in to serve a four year turner of office at the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly of the Northern Region of
This exercise was in fulfillment of the 1992 Constitution which requires that in every four years, elections be conducted in all Electoral Areas of the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the country to elect new officers or renew the mandate of old officers in the Assembly to support the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executive (MMDCE) execute development plans on behalf of the people as representatives.
For instance, Section 16 (1) of the Local Government Act 1993, Act 462 clearly outlines some of the duties of Assembly Members which include (a) maintaining close contact with his electoral area, consult his people on issues to be discussed in the district assembly and collate their views, opinions and proposals; (b) present the views, opinions and proposals to the district assembly; © attend meetings of the district assembly and meetings of the sub-committees of which he is a member; (d) meet his electorate before each meeting of the assembly and among others.
In a speech read for him, President John Evans Atta Mills advised Assembly Members not to seek favours from the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) and management as this undermines their authourity to demand accountability from management. Adding, “Any member who will use his or her position to gain contracts or undue favours from the Assembly will be committing a serious offence of conflict of interest and would be liable to sanction”.
He continued that “As representatives of the president and first servants of the state at the District level, MMDCEs must comport themselves in the administration of the MMDAs to demonstrate to the people that they are indeed available as chief servants of the Districts”.
President Mills emphasized that MMDCEs were expected to be diligent, accountable and responsive to their individual assemblies and the people.
The President however observed that most MMDAs were not doing enough to generate more funds internally and thus depend wholly on the Common Fund, saying “As new Assembly Members you must come out with new strategies in collaboration with management to generate adequate revenue to complement the efforts of Central Government”.
He urged the officers to ensure that funds provided by Central Government as well as that which is internally generated, are prudently managed.
The President mentioned poor sanitary conditions as another problem confronting the MMDAs, adding that, government had indeed invested huge sums of money, yet not much has been achieved in that regard, and charged the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly to put premium on sanitation and waste management activities to rid the city of filth and health problems associated with insanitary conditions.
The Tamale MCE Alhaji Abdulai Haruna Friday, made a passionate appeal to members of the house to see themselves as agents of change not only for their respective communities but as well as any other community of the Metropolis. Adding “ I wish to implore you to see yourselves as partners in development, devoid of political, ethnic, religious or traditional biases”.
He also urged new members to learn from old Assembly members, both past and present and promised to continue to operate an open administration.
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