“Effective coordination brings effective development,” Dr Ato Arthur stated and said it was only such efforts that could enhance the decentralisation process, which is core for accelerated development.

Dr Ato Arthur gave this advice at a sensitisation workshop organised by the LGS at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region for the new coordinating directors appointed to man the six new regions.

The LGS invited coordinating directors of the 10 old regions to be part of the workshop where they shared their rich experiences for the new ones to learn from.

New regions

The new regions are Oti, Savanna, North-East, Bono, Bono-East and Ahafo.

All the coordinating directors have either administered metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies before.

After President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had provided the new regions with vehicles, there was the need for those directors to head the various administration to be orientated to become conversant with their jobs, hence the workshop.

Topics treated at the two-day workshop included Overview of the creation of the six new regions: The role and composition of the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC); Setting up the departments and units of the RCC; Managing the political and administrative interface of the establishment of RCCs and Deepening Decentralisation at the regional level.

Mandate

Dr Ato Arthur noted that as regional coordinating directors their mandate among others was to monitor, coordinate and evaluate the performance of the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in their various regions.

"You should monitor all money made available to the assemblies by any agency of the central government, review and coordinate public service generally in the region," he stated.

He said it behoved them to use diplomacy and tact to deal with their MMDAs so that there would be peace and harmony for the rapid development in the communities in the region.

Advice

Dr Ato Arthur further advised them not to do anything without the consent of their minister and cautioned them to desist from creating a wedge between the regional minister and the deputy and accentuated that such practice would rather bring disaffection and chaos and could have serious ramifications on the development of the region.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Simon Osei-Mensah, earlier in his welcome address, commended the Head of the LGS for organising such a workshop for the newly appointed coordinating directors.

He noted that local government service played a vital role in assisting the RCCs, the District Assemblies and the sub-district councils in the initiation, formulation and implementation of their policies, programmes and projects.