The Performance Rating for 2021 of Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana has been released and widely circulated on social media late yesterday with various actors apprehensive perusing the content bearing in mind its implication for their respective districts.
Section 51 of the Local Governance Act, 2016 Act 936 provides for the OBJECT of the Local Government Service thus “The object of the Service is to secure the effective administration and management of the decentralized local government system in the country” and Section 52 on the other hand provides for the “Functions of the Service” to achieve its OBJECT.
Again, the Mission Statement of the Service and consistent with its functions in section 52 provides that the Local Government “exists to support Local Government to deliver value for money services through the mobilisation, harmonisation and utilisation of qualified, human capacity and material resources to promote local and national development”.
It is against this background that the Local Government Service developed a comprehensive Performance Management System (PMS) based on agreed Service Delivery Standards (SDS) to ensure that the MMDAs perform with a set target to ensure value for money about how resources are managed at the local levels and also to ensure participatory governance.
Having provided the above brief background, it must be put on record, that before the current Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Hon. Eric Tetteh took over of Yilo Krobo, the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly had performed badly which saw the Assembly successively chalked 33rd position out of 33 districts in the Region
in the 2019 and 2020 Performance Rating of the Eastern Region.
This bad performance in the Region infuriated honorable Assembly members at their General Assembly meeting held on 30th June 2021 and brought the said meeting to an abrupt end. During this time Hon. Eric Tetteh was Government appointee of the Yilo Krobo Assembly and when the meeting was adjourned to later date and according held, Hon. Eric Tetteh moved a motion for the matter to be referred to the Public Relations and Complaint Committee (PRCC) provided for by sections 26 and 27 of the Local Governance Act, 2016 Act 936 to investigate among others the reasons for the bad performance of staff that led to abysmal performance of the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly in the Eastern Region Performance Rating.
Accordingly, the PRCC first sat on the matter on the 27th of July 2021 where relevant officers were invited including Heads of Department (HODs) and concluded its investigation and a REPORT was put together (dated 10th November 2021) and presented to the Presiding Member (PM) for operationalization by the incoming Municipal Coordinating Director (MCD) as the MCD at post at the time, Mr. P.K Asamoah was about to retire on 15th November 2021.
As fate would have it, Hon. Eric Tetteh became MCE on 29th September 2021 even before the PRCC report was concluded and determined to ensure that Yilo Krobo improves on its performance internally to reflect positively in the subsequent Performance Rating of the Eastern Region and the Nation as whole and this was evident in the 2021 Nationwide
Performance Rating which saw Yilo Krobo moved from the bottom position (33rd) in the Eastern Region to 18th position and 84th nationwide with 70.75% mark and rated among the thirteen (13) “very good” category. Consequently, even as the Assembly aspires as rightly indicated by Hon. Eric Tetteh on the staff whatApp platform to perform
better in the future to see itself among the top first-five in the Eastern Region, especially taking motivation from our sister district, Lower Manya Krobo Municipal that occupied the 4th position in the Eastern Region and 17th position nationwide with 81.56% mark and among the five (5) excellent category, it is only proper that the MCE, MCD, Eric Hini, Management and the entire staff are commended for this achievement.