The Executive Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee (IMCC) on Decentralisation, Dr. Gameli Hoedoafia, has stated that Ghana’s transport challenges are primarily the responsibility of district assemblies rather than the central government.
He was responding to concerns raised on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday, January 14, about the functionality of the local government system and the ongoing transport difficulties across the country.
Addressing the concerns, Dr. Hoedoafia disagreed with the assertion that the local government system is dysfunctional, although he acknowledged that some areas require urgent improvement.
Focusing on transport, he explained that while the Ministry of Transport sets national policy, the implementation of transport-related interventions falls mainly on local authorities.
“Transport is one of the areas I will identify as needing improvement. When you look at my remit, the Transport Ministry is not part of the IMCC, but because transport is a local issue and affects everybody, it is important for local governments themselves to deal with it,” he said.
Dr. Hoedoafia stressed that existing laws already empower Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to address transport challenges without waiting for directives from the central government.
“Remember that the law empowers local governments to do a lot of these things for themselves and by themselves, and not to sit down waiting for central government,” he said.
According to him, District Chief Executives (DCEs) and Coordinating Directors, who serve as the chief technical officers at the local level, are expected to take the lead in resolving such issues.
“The DCEs and the coordinating directors are supposed to work on these issues, and they know it. They should be fixing them themselves,” he added.
Dr. Hoedoafia further criticised what he described as a culture of overreliance on the central government, noting that it has weakened accountability at the district level.
“We have a culture of overreliance on central government, so issues that should be dealt with at the local government level are blamed on the minister. Yes, the minister sets the policy, but the implementation is the role of the districts,” he said.
