All 18 Municipal and District Chiefs Executives (MDCEs) in the Volta Region last Sunday signed a Performance Agreement Contract with their respective Municipal and District Coordinating Directors at a ceremony in Ho.

The annual exercise, instituted by the Head of the Local Government Service, is a deliberate governance tool designed to strengthen accountability, improve service delivery, and ensure that decentralisation delivers real and measurable benefits to the people.

Every MDCE was accompanied by his or her Member of Parliament (MP) to sign the contract.

The Volta Regional Minister, James Gunu, at the event, said local government remained the frontline of national development.

Hence, the performance contracts contained carefully selected projects, programmes, and service delivery targets that responded directly to the needs of communities, he added.

In that vein, they cover the areas of infrastructure development and sanitation, to education, health, local economic development, and social protection, and other key performance indicators, Mr Gunu explained.

He reminded the MDCEs that the contracts provided a clear road map for what must be achieved within a year, and that demanded leadership, discipline, innovation, and above all, commitment to results.

Resetting agenda

He said the government's ‘Resetting Agenda’ sought to restore confidence in public institutions, accelerate development, and ensure that governance worked for every Ghanaian.

For that matter, Mr Gunu said, as local government leaders, MDCEs were central to the success of the agenda, which would only materialise if projects and programmes were implemented on time, resources used efficiently, and public service delivery was responsive, transparent, and people-centred.

He said the performance contracts should, therefore, serve as leverage to strengthen collaboration between political and administrative leadership at the assembly level, prioritise timely implementation of projects, and monitor progress rigorously.

Further, the contracts must address bottlenecks promptly and uphold the highest standards of accountability and lead with integrity, urgency, and purpose, Mr Gunu insisted.

He entreated the MDCEs and Coordinating Directors to treat the contracts as binding commitments to the people they served, to the Local Government Service, and to the vision of national development.

The Volta Regional Coordinating Director, Mohammed Avona Akape, said the signing of the contracts marked a significant step in strengthening accountability, enhancing performance management, and deepening collaboration within the local government system.

He said it also underscored shared responsibility to translate policy into action and ensure measurable outcomes for the benefit of communities.

The Dean of Volta MDCEs, Jerry Yaw Ameko, expressed gratitude to the Regional Minister for his support and guidance to MDCEs, and reaffirmed the commitment of MDCEs to work together in harmony to lift the region to greater heights.

Mr Ameko, who is the Adaklu DCE, gave an assurance that the MDCEs would work with great zeal around the clock to push the Resetting Agenda in the region and the country at large.