Ahwoi says departmental heads may ignore incompetent officials

Ho, Jan 20, GNA - Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, a Principal Lecturer at GIMPA, has said incompetent Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) risked being ignored by their more competent departmental heads.

He said the bureaucrats and technocrats as heads of the decentralized departments were highly qualified people some with wealth of experience and exposure who would expect the MMDCEs to affect them in a very competent manner. Mr Ahwoi was delivering the last in the series of regional lectures in Decentralization and Local Government in Ho. He said as the decentralization process gathered speed the MMDCEs must show the capacity to manage and coordinate the activities of the department heads.

"If they (Department Heads) know you (MMDCEs) don't know, they, the heads will find fine excuses to ignore you. "So if you know you (MMDCEs) don't know go and know or you can be kicked out," Mr Ahwoi said. He said electing MMDCEs had its disadvantages as elections would not necessarily bring out the best but the most popular. Mr Ahwo said the current system of nomination by the President also had its problems as the power blocks within ruling Political Parties had leverages that often affected the selection process negatively. 20 Jan 11